Age of Aquarius

We have seen the commercials, Someone is minding their own business when an accident happens that makes them say "Now What?" then the tagline turns into a link for nowwhat.com. So after seeing a tree land on a car for the fourth time I got curious and went to the website. Turns out its for State Farm Insurance. The website is done in Flash and features 3 main index pages with 4 different scenarios for renters and auto insurance on each page. Its quite clever actually, and very appealing to my age group. I like that State Farm has realized its target market and has tempted us into visiting their site. I think it's a pretty well planned out campaign. Well done State Farm, well done.

I have been going crazy over the last week on the Elf Yourself website by Office Max. I have been making my friends, family, frenemies, and even my dog into dancing elves and emailing it to anyone I can get to watch my little creation. Now you can image just how happy I was to discover a similar site, also by Office Max called Scrooge Yourself! AH it just made me so happy this morning to watch myself be a bah humbugging Christmas killer dancing around the snowy stage in tap shoes.

Office Max really came through this season with the interactive website. The only direct line of advertising the user has to get through is at the end of the elf/scrooge dance when a pop-up window with office supplies lines the screen, but you just click the close button and other than that there is no pressure to buy office supplies. There is even a section on the Elf Yourself site where you can choose to record your own voice into the greeting card of dancing Christmas magic.

I want to see Juli do a silly little Elf dance!

Oh I know Juli is one Humbugged mofo!

I got in trouble with my Mom this afternoon because apparently I wasn't exuding enough holiday spirit and both my Dad and I were being "Ba humbugs." So I gave my Mom a hug and told her I would make lilikoi pie with her for our dinner tomorrow night, AND play tennis with her tomorrow morning. I think the only child has fulfilled her duties.

So I was looking around on my iGoogle page, checking up on my little fox in his teahouse seems to be my favorite thing to do lately, and I found this video called Twas The Dark Knight Before Christmas. Very cute, simple and clever. Batman seems to be sharing my sentiments on Christmas, but in the end I think we both came through for the ones we love. So watch the little rhyming movie with action figures. There is something to be said about comic book characters being outside of their normal routines, kinda cool, but another topic for another day.

Yesterday I briefly mentioned Pixar, but I was looking at their website a little bit more and I realized just how much I love their short films. I love reading short stories too. To me it has always seemed there is so much more substance packed into a short story or film than a long drawn out explanation. Short stories and films are so much more stimulating because they pack in delicate and intricate information that the audience must discern. I sometimes loath to see full length films, they are so obvious, especially classical Hollywood cinema. But it is not my intention to complain about the film industry.

If I had to pick, my favorite short story would be Greasy Lake by T.C. Boyle. It's the story of three friends who think they are bad characters. Until they run into a situation on the third night of their summer break where they realize just because they look bad, wearing torn-up leather jackets, slouching around with toothpicks in their mouths and wearing their shades morning, noon and night, doesn't mean they're bad. The reader learns one of the characters is letting his parents pay for his college tuition, dead giveaway these boys are not actually bad characters, but it is just a subtle hit Boyle gives his readers into the character development. I love this story because the diction, imagery, details, language, and syntax are all so rich and perfectly fit to this story.

So anyway, back to Pixar, I saw the film Lifted this summer in the theater and find both the story and the animation to be amazing. I found a version on YouTube which doesn't have the original sound, but due to copyright I am sure it would be very difficult to put the real version on my blog. I'm sad I can't show the real version, because the sound is fantastic. I realized this past term in my digital art class how often sound it taken for granted, but how much extra emotion it adds to the piece, but still it's good never the less.

Whats the deal with birds these days? They're everywhere. I think it all started with the Alfred Hitchcock film The Birds, which was pretty good for the time, but he was an amazing director and producer. Then there was Happy Feet, March of the Penguins, and a short film by Pixar called For the Birds. Also I bought a notebook the other day that was teal with red birds on it, so these little guys are showing up in all kinds of media. Now don't get me wrong, I am diggin' the bird stuff, but I'm just wondering what the deal is. It seems like this bird craze came out of no where.

I can understand though how birds would be such a cool subject matter, I mean they are able to fly to places that humans couldn't get to on foot, they can sing pretty little songs, and they're very water resistant. But I don't think any of the previously mentioned movies have capitalized on these amazing features yet. I think it would be cool to do a bird movie, especially if the camera angles were from a first person viewpoint and went upside down or sideways or something. There are many possibilities. This morning I was watching a couple little yellow birds dance on the roof top of our condo, they would jump from grove to grove on the roof and the shadows they cast on the wall in my bedroom were just so cute, so maybe there is something to all this bird business after all. And maybe Ashley Smallman and I should think about incorporating birds into our creative collaboration movie we have been talking about doing. But then again they have been done so much lately, and I feel like we should do something that isn't so popular and overdone. So either there would have to be a serious twist, a great new storyline, or we should think about a new subject matter.

Around this same time last year I saw my first Sprite SubLYMONal advertisement. I remember thinking that is was very clever, then I forgot about it for a while. Now I have stumbled upon these ads again a year later and I still think they are quite original and cutting edge.

Sprite is an interesting brand. They have chosen underground hip-hop followers as their target audience, and both Malcolm Gladwell, author of Blink, and Nils Anderson, a marketing guru, have spoken about the marketing genius behind Sprite's advertising campaigns. To my knowledge no other brand but Sprite talks directly to its consumer about subliminal messages, although these ads are exactly the opposite of a subliminal mesage. Each spot begins with a voice over that says, "Welcome to 'SubLYMONal' advertising. For best results, do not blink." The commercials even indicate that they are "DVR Ready," tempting people to record and replay them to discover embedded content within. The Lymon-focused action in each ad is interrupted by flashing images and messages and each spot closes with the words, "SubLYMONal Message Complete" and the tagline "Obey." Through re-watching the commercials people can find special codes embedded in the images that can be entered at the brand's website to unlock exclusive content. The site allows consumers to interact with the advertising and it provides different ways for them to create their own "SubLYMONal" experiences.

At UO we have been learning that subliminal messages can't force a person to buy a product. If you can see something else, another logo or object embedded then it isn't subliminal (below a conscious level) now is it? But regardless the myth is still floating around and people believe that evil advertising corporations are trying to target their subconscious. I think these ads are so great because they address the myth and throw it back in the viewers face, and they do it in an eccentric and funky artsy way that always keeps the viewer visually intrigued. I love these ads. Can you imagine how much fun the guys at Crispin Porter + Bogusky of Miami had thinking up the content in these ads? This is the kind of stuff I want to create. Watch the SubLYMONal ad below:

I saw this Shockwave Flash animation website yesterday that blew my mind, I will call it Red Ball since I don't think it has been named. I'm not quite sure how Red Ball was created, but I know it is somehow using flash in a way that gives the user control over a ball which is thrown in a circle by people in silhouette, but then how do the hands follow the ball everywhere? I am perplexed and amazed.

Then I found another website called Man in the Dark, by artists Aaron Russ Clinger and Miltos Manetas. Similar concept to Red Ball where the users cursor is the control point for the path the tan man takes across the screen. What an incredible animation technique. Imagine if you put something else in the box besides a man, say for example a brand, and the user could drag the brand through different scenarios instead of just a stationary black space. Could be very cool

I have been working in flash for a year of so now. My class partner Laura Webster and I just finished our own website called 49,50! where we compared and contrasted the local cultures of Hawaii and Alaska. We used flash to create animation on almost every page, but the Red Ball and Man in the Dark websites put our flash techniques to shame. They are magnificent animation pieces.

Last night I was looking on this amazing art website called Paintalicious, which has amazing, glamorous, and authentic modern art. I found this artist named Julia Fullerton-Batten who did a series of photographs called Teen Stories. This series is so creative because Fullerton-Batten uses miniature villages in juxtaposition to life size teenage girls in the time of maturity. The models are involved in everyday leisure activities, at home, in the garden, at the swimming pool, or at the beach, but with unique surreal twists. So these photographs with the miniature villages got me to thinking about Urban Dictionary's Husband Chair.

For the last term I have been working on creating ideas for the brand Urban Dictionary. I have created a brand book with some background information about the brand and some new ideas on what I would like to do with it in the future. One of my ideas was to do living art, so actually make a life sized Husband Chair, but how the hell would I do that? So I saw these photographs and now my brain is twisting in the miniature! Now I feel like I am getting somewhere. A miniature Husband Chair is MUCH more plausible. So now I am asking myself how am I going to make a miniature chair, what am I going to use, clay? styrofoam? cardboard? or maybe I can get tricky at Home Depot. After all I did ask for an electric drill for Christmas. Then what kind of fabric would I use to cover it, or would I collage funky magazine pictures or other photographs? Then I thought about making my brand book to fit into the compartment below the cushion, or making it so it slides into the cushion on the miniature model. Oh I am so glad I was struck by this idea. So much to think about!

I was talking with my friend Marcus the other day and we got into a little debate about what makes breakfast breakfast. Is it the time of day, meaning before 11AM? The combination of food you choose to eat, such as pancakes and eggs? Or is it determined by your sleeping patterns and the first meal you eat after you wake up is therefore called breakfast? If that is the case then how long do you have to sleep before you can call the next meal breakfast? I don't think short naps should count, you need at least 6 hours of sleep separation between meals in order to call the next one breakfast.

Then there's brunch. Brunch is kinda like a really good party, it only happens on weekends and you are usually really hungover afterwards. Now don't get me wrong, I love brunch, but it is a bit indecisive because it is the combination of both breakfast and lunch foods. However time is a predominate factor determining the occurrence of the brunch meal which is usually eaten around 11AM or after. So I guess in that respect brunch is more firm than mere breakfast. Due to the combination of two meals you can't have brunch after lunch hours or else you would be getting into linner (lunch + dinner) and those meals are too similar to combine into one word. I wonder if in the South they refer to brunch as brinner since the midday meal is usually called dinner?

Anyway, I'm not going to pretend that I have all the answers to these perplexing and down right mind boggling questions. I just think it is interesting how many interpretations one word can have, and all the various paths a person can take to arrive at the same end result. Words are a little like a puzzle I suppose, because you can piece together different factors to end with the desired result, like brunch (breakfast + lunch). Well since I don't have any concrete answers for you I think I would like to conclude this post by pronouncing breakfast to be determined by the stomach of the eater.

I have been wanting to start a personal blog for a while, but now the time is right and I am going to try to keep writing everyday. So now I have this blog, called Acquario-era, meaning Aquarius Age in Italiano. Doesn't it just sound so much more sexy and chic in a different language? Anyway I am an Aquarius on the cusp of Pisces, and since we are currently in the Age of Pisces but steadily moving toward the Age of Aquarius I figured it was just as good a name as any for my blog about how I think and who I am. I know some people think astrology is a bunch of bullshit, but I think it has some merit. I have always said that if I were going to get a tattoo it would be my astrological sign because it is the one thing about me that wont ever change. I'm not getting a tattoo though, not yet anyway.

But back to astrological ages, which are believed by some to influence the way humans live, think, and react to their surroundings. Eastern astrology associates the Age of Pisces with yin, spirituality and intuition. Aquarius, on the other hand represents the yang, with its emphasis on rationality and high technology. As I said before we are currently in the Age of Pisces, which is believed to be an age which people agree with authority and rely on outside forces for approval, also the approval of peers gives people a sense of self-worth.

It is believed that in the coming of the Aquarian Age people will gain their sense of self-worth through self-approval. Since a person looking at herself can see her own inner nature, soul qualities will begin to be valued. A person who can judge herself is no longer tied to what everyone else thinks, self-judgment promotes freedom and creativity. In the Aquarian Age there will be a blending of religion and science which will lead to a new revolution of discovery, creativity, invention, and exploration. So since I am an Aquarius and we are soon going to be entering the Age of Aquarius I figured now was as good a time as any to rely on my inner self to pull me through to the next plateau of my life.