It ain't much of a video, but this audio track is worth three minutes to hear.
I once had a friend who convinced a telemarketer calling to offer him free dance lessons that he was a former dancer crippled in a car accident that took the life of his beloved wife and dance partner. The telemarketer was moved to tears and never called back again.
This tactic is an even more fun way to deal with those annoying telemarketing calls:
I thought I knew what "WTF" stood for, but now I have my doubts. There's a WTF Magazine, and it isn't what you think!
I would've thought Skymall would've been a good candidate for WTF Magazine--except for the pet strollers, which are cool.
BoingBoing tells me that WTF Magazine is, instead, "Welcome to Finland." Do you think they type WTF in Finland like we do?
Thanks to Jean for sharing this!
I have no idea who Sophie Monk is, but suddenly I feel like going vegetarian.
Not sure how I feel about this campaign. I support PETA, but it's getting boringly familiar for them to issue ads with naked chicks every couple of months. At one time it seemed daring and worthy of attention, but as the babes get less famous and the Playboy-like poses pile up, this campaign is starting to reek of desperation.
And why is that if a beer company features half-naked women, they get criticized for reinforcing old, stereotypical gender roles (as if beer-guzzling men don't appreciate attractive women), but if a charity features naked chicks or inappropriate taglines, it's okay?
The other day I was station surfing and came across one those right-wing blowhards that rule the airwaves (while constantly complaining about the lack of conservative voices in the media). He was complaining about the sexualization of young girls and felt Americans should be outraged at two seemingly unrelated things: a city's plan to allow distribution of birth control pills to girls as young as eleven and the sexing up of preteen and teen girls' Halloween Costumes.
Listening to the guy, I had several thoughts. The first was that, at some level, the differences between Democrats and Republicans (or conservatives and liberals) aren't that great. Is there anyone who isn't concerned about the sexualization of young girls in the US? You don't have to be an old prude to think girls are growing up too fast. We've all walked through a mall and wondered to ourselves something along the lines of "Is she 13 or 23?" or "How did her parents let her out of the house looking like that?"
But since I was agreeing with the conservative talk show host, why did I still find him so wrong? It struck me that my complaint had something to do with conservatives being unable to understand cause and effect. To them, everything is a cause!
Take the two complaints expressed by the host: Girls as young as eleven getting contraceptives and sexy costumes for girls. In both cases, he was arguing these were wrong and required action, but that completely misses the point about cause and effect. Even if we could alter these things, it wouldn't change the underlying problem of girls being permitted to grow up too quickly. By mistaking these two issues as "causes," he missed (or purposely avoided) having to dig deeper for the real cause.
I agree our culture shouldn't put up with teen and preteen girls dressing like Paris Hilton and Britney Speers for Halloween. But this isn't causing anything to happen--it's an effect.
The pertinent question isn't, "Why doesn't someone do something about these inappropriate costumes?" The more interesting and important questions are: Why didn't girls a generation earlier seek out these costumes? Why do parents find it so difficult to exercise parental authority when it comes to what their children see, do, and wear? What is it about our culture that has made it acceptable (or almost acceptable) for 12 year olds to dress like this, this, this, this or this? And how did we go from an era where parents said "no" all the damn time (not that I'm bitter about my Atari-less childhood or anything) to one where sexy children's' costumes fly off the shelf with parents merely being "disconcerted"?
And if inappropriate kids' costumes aren't really a cause, then the whole birth control debate is even that much less a "cause." Girls don't go out and have sex because birth control is available, and taking it away won't alter whatever cultural forces are permitting or encouraging our children to engage in inappropriate and dangerous sexual activities. (In fact, taking it away is a "cause" that will result in a very unsatisfactory "effect"--more kids having kids, more abortions, and more poverty.)
My point is that conservatives go for the easy targets by making everything a cause and refusing to accept that the things they complain about are really an effect of something much larger, deeper, more subtle, and difficult to change. Fighting "effects" as if they're "causes" won't change a single thing and in fact can do more damage than good.
Of course, Democrats have their own problems with cause and effect. My complaint about traditional Democratic leanings is that liberal view that people have no impact on their own cause and effect.
One kid drops out of school, uses drugs, and turns to violence to support a habit, and suddenly he is a powerless victim of his economic conditions. Never mind that the kid next door graduated from the same school, went to college, and is now successful. In the pandering view of the people on the left, people are absolved of their "effects" because there are no personal "causes," just societal ones.
So, why do people on both sides of the political spectrum have such trouble with cause and effect? I think it may be because one cannot get elected while telling the voters it's their own damn fault. Because ultimately, that's where all roads lead for any important American issue.
Girls becoming too sexualized at young ages? Parents, it's time you grow a backbone and tell your kids what they can wear, see, and do. (And no, it doesn't matter that the parents next door are too permissive with their kids--are you really going to let another parent's poor decisions force you into your own?) Inner city crime? Stay in school, get a job, and have kids when you're old and mature enough to handle them. (And no, it doesn't matter that school and work are tough and no fun--no one said the road to success was easy.)
So, finally, maybe here is the ultimate cause and effect: Because people don't want to be told they are ultimately responsible for the things that are wrong in the world ("the cause"), we never can find a way of solving the most vexing problems our society faces ("the effect"). If we can somehow impact this "cause," the effect may be a future of peace and prosperity.
Found a fun little widget that permits you to listen to a custom radio station based on a favorite artist. Just enter the name and listen...
Could it be true? America's mayor? The hero of 9/11? A liar? Say it ain't so!
If you follow FactCheck.org (and you should) you might notice an interesting trend: Rudy Giuliani has an alarming tendency to use unverified data, twist facts, and say pretty much whatever crosses his mind--truth be damned!
So far this month, the fine and objective people at FactCheck have published six reports on statements made by the candidates themselves or in their ads. Rudy has been mentioned in just about every one of them. For example:
I just had a thought: With the way parenting is going nowadays--the way adults cannot say no and provide their children with ever more lavish parties and lifestyles--how long will it be until "Trick or Treat" means the kids stay at home while the parents lug bags of candy from door to door to distribute it to the little princes and princesses?
Just had to ask.
He may be a lame duck, but George Bush isn't ceasing his efforts to push his damaging political agenda both here and abroad. Here's the latest:
Susan Orr as Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population Affairs
The Bush administration has announced the appointment of staunchly anti-birth control Susan Orr to a leadership role in the Office of Population Affairs. Her responsibilities include U.S. contraception programs. Her past views and statements make her exceedingly unfit for this role.
Here are some gems from Ms. Orr's past:
I love simple ads that make a powerful point. Here's an ad that probably cost little, and yet you can't help but pay attention. In 10 seconds, you'll want to start planning a trip to the zoo.
BTW, if you're one of those people who don't like zoos because you think it's cruel to keep the animals, you'd be well advised to read, "Life of Pi." This Man Booker Prize winner is a terrific read that includes, among other things, a passionate defense of zoos. The book is a very worthy read--the story is engrossing and rich with imagination!
Anyway, enjoy this 10-second ad for the San Francisco Zoo.
I've been a little down lately. That got me to thinking of music that makes me smile whenever I hear it. Here are the songs that came to my mind. It's a pretty random list, but then again, aren't smiles kinda random?
What songs make you smile?
SeeqPod Music beta - Playable Search
I don't have many favorite sports writers. In fact--since I am not really that into sports--the list contains exactly one: Frank Deford. I was exposed to Mr. Deford via NPR, and I found his observations always made me care about a subject I wouldn't otherwise give much thought.
Take this television report, for example. Story about a 5-year-old golf prodigy? Sounds mildly interesting. But there's so much more to Kyle Lograsso's story.
The two parts are a little long (~12 minutes), but I think you'll find these videos worthwhile and inspirational.
Here's a Walt Disney short called "No Smoking," featuring smoking in bed, offices filled with smoke, and an addicted Goofy picking butts out of the gutter. Really!
I'm still searching for the Disney short "No More Weed, Man" starring Donald (trading his trademark sailor suit for a tie dye T).
Blast from the past: The Beatles recording "All You Need is Love" for a live TV broadcast. The song was first performed by the band on Our World, the first ever live global television link. Broadcast to 26 countries and watched by 350 million people, the program was broadcast via satellite on June 25, 1967.
Dig the young Mick Jagger in the audience and the super, cool, funky musicians playing brass and strings.
Why Mellow Thursday? The week has a head of steam, and you're probably rushing to the weekend. Time to sit back and enjoy a bit of mellow music to clear your head.
One of my favorite songs of all time: Marvin Gaye's "Mercy Mercy Me" (subtitled "The Ecology.")
If I can mix a bit of pertinent reality with our environmental mellow music, please read this frightening article on CNN. A random family participated in a study to test for chemicals in their bodies. They approached the tests with curiosity but were horrified to learn their two children--just 18 months and five years old--have chemical exposure levels up to seven times those of their parents! The year-and-a-half-old child had two to three times the level of flame retardants in his body that's been known to cause thyroid dysfunction in lab rats.
We're so surrounded by unproven chemicals that the bodies of our children are absorbing substances at an alarming rate. Most worrying is that the long-term consequences of such exposure is unknown. Says one scientist at the Center for Children's Health and the Environment at the Mount Sinai Medical Center, "We are the humans in a dangerous and unnatural experiment in the United States, and I think it's unconscionable."
How easy it always seemed to mock Fred Rogers. His slow and measured delivery--even when he wasn't on camera on his show--and his earnestness seemed so unfashionable once I reached a certain age.
But I guess I've reached a different certain age, because how it seems so clear to me: Mister Rogers was braver, more comfortable, and more real than anyone else I can think of on TV. His commitment to the children of the world never wavered, and his patience and focus were steadfast.
Losing patience, getting bored, phoning it in--those are the easy things. Fred Rogers did something very hard and made it look very easy decade after decade.
Here are two videos. The first is Fred Rogers turning a cynical senator into putty at hearings about cutting funding for Public Television. And the second is him earning his Lifetime Achievement Award at the Emmy awards.
I lost a friend today. My friend Mike lost his battle with cancer and passed away this morning.
Mike was a very special and unique guy, but I'll bet you have a Mike or two in your life. Mike was the most genuinely upbeat and caring guy I knew. He remembered everybody's name and greeted everyone like a friend (which is really not that unusual considering he had a way of making everyone he met a friend.) He never arrived to a party without a gift or a smile, and he had an uncanny way of having a party form around him wherever he went.
Mike was and will remain an inspiration to me. And I'll miss him.
We never have time for the things that matter but are capable of finding the time for work and stress and commuting and worry and anger. That isn't just a shame; it's a tragedy.
Life is short and precious. Identify your Mikes and cherish them. Make time to buy them drinks, enjoy laughter, share stories, lessen your burden, and spread some joy. Because tomorrow either you or your Mike may not be here.
Cherish your Mikes while you can.
Okay, this is like saying a squirrel has fur, but Amy Winehouse really has no decorum. This talented young woman has been in treatment for substance abuse, and her new live DVD will come with a pint glass. My friend John mused that a syringe would be crossing some sort of line. I figure she should just go all the way and include a coupon for a tattoo parlor, a gallon of eyeliner, and your own free week in rehab.
Have a little fun and release some creativity with this Digital Etch A Sketch. (I was never very adept at knowing which way to crank those two knobs, so I appreciate this arrow-driven approach.) Click in the Etch a Sketch window to begin.
I hate it when people say, "I never listen to critics--they never get movies right." These people probably never get past the thumbs up or number of stars, because if they actually read the reviews, they'd find that any critic worth their salt provides plenty of information within their reviews to help one decide if they should see or avoid a film, no matter what the critic's rating.
Or, these people have terrible taste in movies and think "Battlefield Earth," "Gigli" and "Rollerball" are great, no matter what the critics say.
I am not sure this new site will get me to stop visiting RottenTomatoes, but it is an interesting way of finding other people who have similar tastes in movies--and of course, the movies they like. Criticker allows you to rate a bunch of movies, and then the site will present movie recommendations or allow you to peruse the ratings of other users whose tastes are similar to your own.
We've linked to some interesting music sites in recent months, including Musicovery and Seeqpod. Here's another: Fans of Last.fm and Pandora may want to check out Slacker, a new online radio site. It combines dozens of preset stations with the ability to customize your own. The music quality seems to be superior to other streaming radio sites (at least to my ears.) Creating a new station is easy--enter an artists, and dozens of similar artists are provide from which you may choose.
Enjoy my station of favorite female jazz vocalists:
Create your own Slacker Station now
Is it just me, or have rescue dogs gotten a little less exciting over the years? They used to be St. Bernards with kegs of liquor strapped to their necks. Nowadays, they appear to be alien dogs wearing disco outfits. Is this progress?
I am always amazed at how lame some movie trailer are. If a producer cannot take a 90-to-120-minute movie and find two good minutes that make the film seem exciting, touching, or otherwise notable, that says more about the people making the trailer than the movie itself.
Of course, trailers can mislead. I remember being almost moved to tears by the trailer for "Pearl Harbor." Then the movie came out and I was moved to tears--unintentionally.
So, trailers obviously must be approached with a healthy dose of skepticism. Still, I couldn't help but get excited about the movie "Vantage Point" after seeing its trailer. It's got established stars (Quaid, Whitaker, Weaver, and Hurt), upcoming stars (Matthew Fox and Zoe Saldana), interesting cinematography, gripping action sequences, and apparently enough twists and turns for any two movies. I can forgive the trailer for giving up one or two spoilers, because in the end the music, quick-cut editing, action shots, and reaction shots add up to an edge-of-your-seat 150 seconds.
"Vantage Point" is due out in February, which is typically a dumping ground for movies. Is that smart counter scheduling or a sign this movie is far less than it appears? Time will tell.
If you have not seen "Michael Clayton", and if you are an adult who enjoys movies that don't telegraph and spell out every twist and emotion, then you should make a date to go to the movies. The film is intelligent, tautly written and directed, and features strong performances from George Clooney and Tilda Swinton.
Much has been written by critics about Clooney's performance--how he looks older, shows vulnerability, etc.--but it is Swinton (in a relatively small role) who really impresses. It isn't hard to play evil when you're doing it big and confident; think Alan Rickman in Die Hard or Glenn Close in 101 Dalmatians. But to play evil as a coward--to show the way humans come to do evil things, step by step twisting their logic and morals to justify the necessity of inhumane actions--requires an actor to give himself or herself to the role and character without reservation. Swinton achieves this in "Michael Clayton."
Which brings me to the one quibble I had with the film: George Clooney stretches but really cannot leave the confines of his movie-star looks or his innate decency. We're supposed to believe that this "fixer"--a 12-year member of one of the largest litigation firms in the country who has achieved success by exploiting the seams in our system through charm, influence, and greased palms--is shocked, SHOCKED!, to find out his firm might not be on the "right" side of a $3 billion class action lawsuit.
A chemical company stands accused of producing a weed killer responsible for the deaths of almost 500 people and the protagonist's firm, which represents the chemical company, has been stringing out the lawsuit for almost six years and celebrating milestones such as 30,000 billable hours achieved. In the midst of all this, Clooney's character attains a moment of doubt and asks the firm's senior partner if it matters they're on the wrong side. The response he receives echoed my own feelings: "Fifteen years in, and I got to tell you how we pay the rent?"
The half step that separates this very good film from being a great film is that Clooney couldn't quite bring himself to play someone who truly knew and was a player in the game. Instead, he stands (ever so slightly) as some sort of outsider hoodwinked by his friends and peers. If Clooney had brought a little bit more Swinton to his role, this could've been a classic.
I've played this game occasionally over the last year. It's a good brain teaser if you have 10 minutes to kill. I scored 163,500 tonight. How did you do?
Just got back from a completely fun and entertaining evening with the Polyphonic Spree. Can you think of a band better suited for one of those touching, uplifting, but increasingly trite voice overs about being true to oneself that seem to conclude every episode of Scrubs?
Why Mellow Thursday? The week has a head of steam, and you're probably rushing to the weekend. Time to sit back and enjoy a bit of mellow music to clear your head.
Here are two singer-songwriters with very different styles, but both found a comfortable way to create pop while borrowing elements from styles as diverse as rap and jazz.
Take a lazy gondola ride with Jason Mraz and his guitar.
Jamie Cullum's jazzy, relaxing "Photograph." (Alas, the killer piano solo from the CD version is not included in this video.)
As my friend John said: "You can't make this stuff up."
Lynne Cheney, long-suffering wife of VP Dick Cheney, revealed during a television interview Tuesday that her husband and Barack Obama are cousins--eighth cousins, to be exact.
Said an Obama spokesperson, "Every family has a black sheep."
Check out more on this unlikely story here.
Working in advertising drives people crazy. For evidence of this, check out the New York Post's article about a Mediavest employee who had a "bad day." How bad? He had a panic attack and ran around Times Square naked for several minutes before being hauled to Bellevue Hospital.
If you think being a bomb disposal professional or an ER nurse is tough, just try to last a full week in the mean aisles and cubicles of an advertising agency!
In the never-ending quest of advertisers to find a way to plaster every square inch of our planet with ads, there are now three new, annoying ad media. Our list included walls, floors, ceilings, Web sites, mobile phones, car wraps, buses, trucks, TV shows, movies, fields, asses, car trunks, and parking lot stripes. Now you can add the fronts of laundromat washing machines, snow plow blades, and hands to the list.
The other day I was walking through a park and I actually found a spot that was devoid of advertising. Please don't share this info with any marketers, or else we'll soon have Nielsen rating competition between maple and oak trees. ("Maples give me greater market penetration but oaks deliver the coveted 12-to-24 demo.") 
We've posted about advertisers' insatiable need to blanket the world with ads, whether or not it's appropriate, successful, or welcome by consumers. My gripe is that advertising is losing its effectiveness because marketers are flooding consumers' lives with ads in every square inch: walls, floors, ceilings, Web sites, mobile phones, car wraps, buses, trucks, TV shows, movies, fields, asses and parking lot stripes.
Now advertising can come to every car around you. Why should marketers miss the chance to advertise to you while you're zipping down the road? Now your morning commute can not only be long and congested but annoying as well, thanks to Ads 4 Tow.com.
I think this qualifies as "Ad Pollution." Can we get Nobel Laureate Al Gore to start working on reducing this kind of pollution?
I'm no prude, but can't we find a way to fight breast cancer without getting crass?
The latest trend seems to vaguely offensive T-shirts and sites dedicated to raising money for breast cancer research and care. Who can protest such a noble cause? But do we really need sites like SaveTheTatas.com and Jingle Jugs?
And what adult in their right mind would purchase a shirt for their young daughter reading "Save the Ta-Tas"?!? That's like asking for a suspension from school and a visit from child protective services. Heck, how about T-shirts for kids that read, "I like dicks" to support testicular cancer or "Take one up the ass" to remind people to fight colon cancer with regular colonoscopies?
And considering these companies only "give a portion" of their proceeds to charities, why not just give your cash directly to the charity and let your money go farther for a good cause?
I have a deep, dark secret to admit--I've never been to NYC. I'd love to visit, and I'm sure I'll fall in love, but I've never had occasion to visit and never made the plans.
I hope to change that within a year or two, and when I get there I am heading straight to the subway. It seems the media over decades has painted the subway as a dangerous place, and perhaps it is. But, if you use YouTube as a guide, the New York subway system is the center of American performance art.
Enjoy an astonishing variety of music and dance from the bowels of NYC:
Here's a music site that will have you exploring for hours--Musicovery.com. Explore music by mood, tempo, and genre. Artists are strung together by similar traits and color coded for easy recognition. Any music site that can string together Gloria Estefan, Scorpions, Hoobastank, and Depeche Mode is either doing something very right or spectacularly wrong.
