Sunday, September 30, 2007

Misery Loves Company

Just when I thought no one could suck as much as the Mariners did towards the end of the season, The Mets prove they too can SUCK.

Must be the letter M. Maybe we should have it stricken from the English language...

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Email popular among marketers...for now anyway

eMarketer is reporting that email is most popular online marketing tool...and even suggests that it will continue to be. and while this may be true for some very specific types of companies (read: fly by night)--it surely won't be true for companies that care about their reputations--there are just too many problems associated with email--spam, viruses, file size issues etc...for this to remain a mainstay in the years to come.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Many people are addicted to the Internet

the results of a recent survey in the U.S. shows that 15% of Internet users can't go a day without internet access. okay sure. that's not surprising.

what's surprising is who conducted the research. it was JWT. looks like ad agencies are beginning to recognise where this ad beast is heading--and it ain't tv. duh.

it's online. that's where it is. that's where it's been. and now agencies may be looking for data to help convince not only their clients that the internet is where it's at but more likely...themselves.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Say hello to a new (er, re-branded) film company

As CampaignBrief is reporting, Chris Graham and Treza Gallogly have just re-branded their film company gladwrap flicks with the name The Film Brewery. All the best!

Thursday, September 20, 2007

The Effing Effies are Here! The Effing Effies are Here!

Per AdMedia, the Effie nominations are here and looks like the nz sister agency to my old stomping grounds is in the lead...Saatchi & Saatchi's got 13 followed by Colenso & Colenso w/8, Oglivy 7, BBDO 6, DraftFCB 4, DDB and Y&R 3, etc...

For the full list go to www.caanz.co.nz.

Maybe I was too hard on Lame-Man...

in my last post. He actually sounds like a kindred spirit. (h/t huffington post)

So what if he can't act...

Monday, September 17, 2007

Scorsese's Iraq

There was a part of me that did not want to see the Departed--despite its widespread acclaim. Everytime I went to the video store I always looked at the case and thought maybe...but then kept going.

Thing is, I'm a huge Scorsese fan. Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Kundun, After Hours, Taxi Driver...those are some of my favorites and a few of them (Raging Bull, Taxi Driver) may be among the best films ever made. That said, let's not forget that Scorsese also directed The Color of Money, New York, New York, and Gangs of New York....

So he's not perfect.

Plus, a quick glance at the cast of The Departed should give anyone cause to pause: DeCrapio, Marky Mark, and Jason Bourne (er I mean Matt Lame-man)....and the cartoon character himself (who used to be something to behold)--Jack Nicholson. I mean, there's not a whole lot to look forward to here. But I figured, well, it is Scorsese and he did win The oscar for it...

So the other day I finally rented it.

Damn me to hell.

The Departed was one of the smelliest pieces of crap I've seen in a long long time. Oh sure, there were some good Scorsese moments (though honestly, a day later and I can't remember one)--but overall the thing stunk. STUNK.

DeCrapio was by far the best thing on the screen--I mean the poor kid was working hard, very hard to show his anguish and fear and loathing. And when DeCrapio is the best thing going, you know you're in trouble.

Lame-man, The Human Cartoon and Marky Mark were all equally crappy in their own way. Marky Mark with his wooden delivery of some of the more colorful lines in the script was completely and utterly forgettable. The portion of the screen occupied by Marky Mark pretty much disappears--he's as vanilla (ice) as it gets.

Then there's The Human Cartoon. Talk about not scary--when that's mostly what he was supposed to be, talk about not interesting--when that's some of what he was supposed to be, talk about lame-ass in-and-out Irish accent...well you get all that and less from our friend, The Human Cartoon (I know he did some great acting in the 60s and 70s, but can't he just go away now?).

And finally, let's not forget Matt Lame-man. Here is an actor who somehow has been dubbed one of the young great american actors--and yet, the funny thing is, he can't act. He can't be complex, he can't be simple, he can't be dark, he can't be light--he can't convincingly pull off anything.

So here we are left with scenes like the one where it's just DeCrapio and Lame-Man on the screen (in split-screen) with phones to their ears--the bad cop finally comes ear to ear with the only man who can bring him down--it's one of the huge Scorsese moments...but one that falls completely flat as we realize that the huge moment is being delivered by two of the more boring actors in recent memory. We're left watching two uninteresting actors plopped down in the middle of what could have been a fairly interesting scene. But I do mean fairly interesting scene--let's not go overboard here. This scene is nothing, repeat NOTHING, new. And the amount of silly cell phone tricks that Scorsese uses in this film is not only silly but highlights another of the many problems with this film. IT WAS FULL OF ANNOYING HOLES, OF SCENES THAT DEFIED ALL LOGIC, or to put it more matter-of-factly--The Departed often made no fucking sense at all. Here's just a few questions I have:

1. When Lame-Man finally hears De-Crapio speak--why doesn't he immediately call the Human Cartoon and describe the voice to him: youngish, boyish--as far as I could tell, everyone on the Human Cartoon's payroll was over 50...except DeCrapio.
2. When Sheen is pushed off the roof--where are the cops? The scene of the cops is shot in such close-up that we have no idea where they are--which is probably because in reality the cops would have seen Sheen and thus would have seen DeCrapio. Instead, Scorsese tries to get around this problem by piling them all into this small car (they looked like they were clowns in a clown car) having them say things like: "someone fell off the roof--but we can't see him". And even if by some miracle they were situated in such a way that they couldn't see Sheen--what would the harm have been in driving the car around the building until they found Sheen?
3. It gets worse: DeCrapio's got Lame-Man and he's bringing him in (which in the first place made no sense--why didn't he just immediately grab one of the cops and tell him who Lame-Man was and that he had recorded proof of it??!...and don't tell me it's because Lame-Man deleted his file--several other cops knew who DeCrapio was--they're the ones who told Lame-Man he was waiting for him)...but just as the elevator opens DeCrapio gets shot in the head by...some other cop who was working for The Human Cartoon. WHAT?!? Scorsese pulls some other character out of his ass at the last second, literally from out of nowhere (how the hell did this nobody know where Lame-Man was in the first place?).
4. It gets even worse: Why is Lame-Man free at the end? Didn't DeCrapio give the Psychologist a fucking envelope to open and hand over to the cops if he ever got hurt? Was I just imagining that scene? And if for some reason she I don't know lost the envelope, why was she and those two old lady neighbors shunning Lame-Man at the end? Either he was innocent or he wasn't. And if his story was believed then he was innocent...
5. Last thing: why did Marky Mark shoot Lame-Man at the end? Huh? What the fuck was that?

The last 20 minutes of that movie were equal to or worse than some of the lamest B-Grade Movie scenes in the history of cinema.

And yet...it won the best picture and best director oscars.

Maybe we should throw in a medal of freedom while we're at it.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Friedman was is and always will be a lips...

...on ass kind of a guy. ass in question belonging collectively to bush admin. (h/t crooksandliars)

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Shana Tova!

We had our first Rosh Hashanah in New Zealand temple tonight and during the service my four year old son kept asking me "when is the rabbit coming out?" or "where is the rabbit?" sometimes whispered, sometimes in a fairly loud voice.

suffice it to say that the rabbit never appeared...but the service was nice. and the apples and honey were sweet.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

I'm Back...

Been out of commission for a while now--mainly due to my phd/conference preparation.

But I'm back. And I took a parenting class the other day. It was enlightening to be sure. Taught by a Kiwi named Diane Levy, author of Of Course I Love You...NOW GO TO YOUR ROOM!

I've been a fan of Wendy Mogel's Blessing of a Skinned Knee, but always felt that book, while a good foundational resource (with a decidedly Jewish-focus), never got specific enough for my tastes. Okay...I'm happy to nurture my children's uniqueness (rather than criticize it) and it's good advice to make parents the authority figures in a family (to be respected)...but what do I do when my kid hits someone with a baseball bat or calls me "stupid" or whistles while I plead for him/her to tidy his/her room, etc.... Levy's book picks up where Skinned Knee leaves off. It's very specific and offers very useful, practical advice (she also happens to be Jewish, though Judaism does not factor such a prominent role in her writings).

That said, Levy's parenting class has been tremendously helpful. Her main point is that we need to support our children's feelings while setting clear even sharp boundaries. Some of what she says seems old-fashioned and yet powerful in its simplicity. For instance, how many of us, when our significant other does something that makes us cringe (like turning off the TV just as a show was about to end, sending children into panic mode) says "why did you do that?" or "thanks a lot" or "for the love of god, turn the tv back on" or "how stupid are you?" And yet, Levy argues that in such a case the right thing to do and the most powerful thing to do is to walk over to the offending spouse, stand by his/her side and sternly say to your children: "Do as your mother/father said". Since taking the class i've tried this a few times and damn if it isn't powerful...almost exhilarating.

Yet probably the single most important thing Levy has taught me is the importance of patience of calm in all that you do with children. Screaming, shouting, yelling at your children is strictly forbidden (and by the way, doesn't work). I've always been against yelling at children but occasionally it happens...well frankly occasionally is too often.

But enough about real life...soon I'll be reporting on my Second Life experiences--maybe i'll even post some images of my recently updated avatar, archmunster Toll. Stay tuned....