Thunde

So. Oklahoma City found themselves the recipient of a professional sports team two or three years a go. We inherited the Seattle Blackhawks? Falcons? Tigers? I dunno. Some NBA team that was in Seattle. They were going broke there, I guess, and moved here.

Our city really likes them. And apparently we're pretty good. Not that I would know, I've never been to a game. But I hear they're fun, so I guess I should go check them out at some point. Frankly, though, I don't have to try too hard to know what's going on with them. Facebook posts always tell me the following: When there's a game about the start (you see a lot of "THUNDER UP" at this point. I guess this is our cheer?), how the team is doing (read: status updates about missed shots, bad calls, etc) and whether they won or lost. It's perfect really. Except I still don't know any of the players' names. Or who the coach is. Or what playoff's we're in.

But I do know this: We want Ellen to be our Thunder Girl. To date she hasn't made an appearance here. presumably, though, it's only a matter of time. ->

Art & Copy

I streamed a movie on Netflix and watched it on my Samsung screen.  I sipped a Diet Coke out of my 7-11 cup and procrastinated sewing the button back on The Boy's Old Navy shorts.  

The movie I watched?  Art & Copy, a 2009 documentary about advertising.  

Here are some stats from the film:  

1. 75% of American homes have 3 or more televisions. 
2. Food companies spent $32 billion on advertising in 2008
3. A 30 second ad on American Idol costs $750,000 
4. A 30 second ad during the Super Bowl costs $2.7 million
5. Each year the average child sees 20,00 television commercials
6. 80% of all advertising is produced by 4 global holding companies

And some words of wisdom from advertising gurus (whose names I didn't record. Because I was being lazy and didn't feel like picking through the film and finding them again):  

"I hope people understand that brands can be dangerous.  They're like a TV channel that you get locked in to." 

"Fear is a very powerful depressant" 

"Great advertising makes food taste better".  (from the dude who designed the "I Want My MTV campaign")

This project of mine has been an exploration of consumerism and I've never pretended to lead or plan on leading a consumer-free existence.  It's an impossible task.  So in that spirit and I'm taking the complete opposite approach to day and listing my favorite ads.  

Say you: WHAT? 

Say me:  Stop.  We all have them, so don't try and shy away from it.  

Favorite ads of yore:  The touchy-feely Coca-Cola commercials.  


From my teens: The MTV commercials.  Once upon a time, MTV actually played music videos. Did you know that?   "Where's the Beef" was quite entertaining.  And Are you old enough to remember Nancy Reagan's Just Say No campaign?  That egg is forever imprinted. I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing. 

Recent years: The Budweiser Frogs.  Hello?  Brilliant.  Coke's polar bear?  I hate to admit it, but their marketing is oh, so effective. 

Contemporary ads: The iPod spreads are beautiful.  Plus the spoofs are always fantastic.  I also love the Absolut vodka print spreads (scroll down.  The hangman one is spectacular).  Eye candy, every one of them.  Christmas time always offers some great ads, and Target, damn them, last year combined humor with my all-time favorite Christmas carol. 

Then there's the best ad to EVER hit the airwaves:  ->

ATM

 

Medieval* Fair this weekend in my town.  The Geek and I made a point of stopping at a convenience store for some cash before we arrived, but as we were parking I thought to myself: "I'm sure there will be ATMs set up there.  We probably didn't need to stop first." 

I was right.  I saw at least 4 of them scattered about.  Amazing, really, that they can just move those things in and out.  And who, by-the-way, profits from this little cottage industry (I mean, other than your bank.  Who profits for the sole reason of you keeping your money there. Because it cost them SO MUCH to have you withdraw your own money from a machine)?  Are they franchises?   

On another note, I hesitated to use yet another ATM shot, as that seems to be my go-to theme recently, but honestly I thought this was the best of the bunch. -> 

*It's taken me over 4 decades, but I can now spell "medieval" correctly without having to look it up.  

Eclipse

I have a great admiration for fiction authors.  Try as I might, I'm just no good at making up stories. Oh, I know.  There are no truly unique plots or characters.  They're all spins on stories that have been floating around since the beginning of time.  

Still.  I can't do it.  

What I find even more amazing is when an unheard of author manages to 1) write a story and 2) find a publisher.  Because from what I understand about the publishing business (which is admittedly very little), it's extremely hard to break in at all.  In fact, if you manage to get your book on the shelf by any of the major publishing houses you should consider yourself lucky. 

But to write a series of (mediocre) books, get them published when you're an unknown, and then manage to catch lightening in a bottle by having those books touch a nerve and hit the stratosphere in popularity?  That's like winning the multi-million dollar lottery.  


Yet it's happened twice in the past decade.  Of course I'm speaking of Harry Potter* and Twilight**. To a lesser degree, you can throw in The Hunger Games, although that one is far from reaching critical mass at this point.  Not to say it won't, of course.  It goes without saying that all three series were written for a younger, more impressionable audience.  Accident?  Doubtful. 

I simply don't remember books turning into hot commodities when I was a kid.  I don't remember midnight lines around the corner at bookstores when the next installment of a Nancy Drew or OZ series hit the stands. (Granted, that might be because they had all been published for decades by the time I got to read them.) My friends and I got excited about Judy Blume books, but none of those books were ever made into a (/n appallingly bad) theatrical release or had characters from said books turned into creepy looking figurines:  

Granted, the concept of merchandising is hardly new.  Disney got that ball rolling back in the 30's with Snow White and it's been around ever since.  And of course the third millenia doesn't have a monopoly on teen idols.  I think it's fair to say Rudolf Valentino gets the nod on starting that trend.  
But to garner a wildly successful franchise that originated from a set of books, as opposed to music performers, TV stars, or plots from the big screen seems like a new twist.  


Or am I missing something?  Please correct me if I am.  


Say you: How many times did you read Twilight et al and Harry Potter? 
Say me: No comment.  -> 


*Interesting, isn't it, that the actor who plays Edward from the Twilight Series also had a minor role in the Harry Potter series?  Two of the biggest franchises in the past decade and he was involved in both of them.  Talk about being in the right place at the right time.  Not to mention the fact that having chiseled good looks certainly doesn't hurt. 


**I do think the HP books are much, much better than the Twilight ones.  But Rowling's plot lines are over-the-top and I'm still mad at her for killing off Dobby. 

CT SS

Say me: I went to a rodeo tonight. 

Say you: Come again? 

Say me: I know, right?  

The pic above depicts a price tag on a saddle that was displayed and obviously for sale: 

For the full write-up, because you know I can't go to a rodeo without one, you can go here.  -> 

Take Two

 

What a creepy-ass movie this was.  Have you seen it?  

Now that I've got that out of the way, let the ranting commence.  

I was at Warren Theater a while ago, because if you were at all paying attention, I pretty much hated the first picture I posted and felt compelled to go out and get another shot.  

I'm beginning to learn "free country" doesn't necessarily co-exist well with "free market".  Because once again, I was approached and told I was not allowed to take pictures in an establishment.  Like me and my stupid iPhone camera that can't take decent pictures from more than 8 inches away (hence all the close-ups, not that this is a bad thing) poses a significant threat to all the people in there going to watch a movie. Or more to the point, it poses a threat to Warren Theater's business model.  In fact, I was so menacing looking that it took two employees to tell me that I wasn't allowed to snap photos.  

This isn't the first time this has occurred since I started my project.  Nor was it the second.  I've quit telling people I'm taking the pics for an art project.  Firstly, they don't believe me and secondly, they don't care.  I can't believe I haven't been nailed in Wal Fart, although I'm sure I will be at some point.  

So, my goal in life since I have an anti-authority streak in me: I'm going to take pictures with reckless abandon every time I'm in Warren Theater.  I urge you to do the same.  

On a completely different note, I love Art Deco architecture and the Warren has employed that look, as you can see above.  It works really well here.  But on a huge stretch of land sitting right next to a major interstate and having been constructed in 2008, as is the Warren?  Well, it seems a bit...incongruous.  Especially when there's a Furr's cafeteria and a Harley Davidson dealership right next door.  ->

Related articles

• Capital of Art Deco - Napier, New Zealand (travelpod.com)
• Five places where Art Deco lives on (sfgate.com)

Freakout

 Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that on New Year's Eve Oklahoma City is the place to be.  


That's right.  Not New York City with their lame lighted ball and 1million-strong crowd, or Sydney, Australia with their Oprah opera house and being first to see the new year on the globe, but Oklahoma City.  Because we have the Flaming Lips giving us live action and you don't. And their show's been rated one of the best New Year's Eve shows to see.  


I was going to link to that last proclamation, but I can't find a story backing me up, so you're going to just have to trust me on this one.  Anyway, why would Rolling Stone stream it live if it wasn't true?


Huge hamster ball over the crowd, a phenomenon that's so cool it's referenced by geeks? 2011 balloons?  The best cover in the world?  How can you not love that?   


And yes, those stupid green blocks were everywhere, telling us to go to wimgo.com. Which, for the life of me, I'm still unclear on what its purpose is other than dolling out goofy green swag at Flaming Lips concerts for two consecutive years.  


BTW, those "pillows" get tossed through the crowd like beach balls.  Except they're not.  They're potentially lethal. -> 


One of my favorite Lips songs: 

Related articles

• Flaming Lips to Play The Soft Bulletin at New Years Show (pitchfork.com)
• Flaming Lips to release a song a month in 2011 (guardian.co.uk)
• The Flaming Lips wish you a freaky New Year (chromewaves.net)

Redbox

Granada

The other pic I had posted was just a filler.  I really liked this one, but wanted to toy with it before I posted here.  So, Saturday's pic, admittedly late but definitely taken on Saturday:  ->

Real 3D

This picture is not great and I fully admit that, but I simply couldn't resist snapping a shot of the actual movie screen.  We saw that flick about the owls.  It wasn't a bad story and the visuals were simply stunning.  

3D movies irritate me, though.  Those glasses give me a headache and it was over $30 for three of us to see a matinee, for crying out loud.  The good news is we saw it at the movie theatre that's fallen out of favor in recent months since the newer, fancier (read: pricier) one opened up 4 miles up the road.  Therefore we practically had the place to ourselves and parking was a snap. ->