Sep 7, 2011
Sep 6, 2011
The Oscars will have some ICE CREAM: Eddie Murphy to host!
Yes. YES! Eddie's back!!!!!!! This is it, I know it! Next up: stand up!!!!!
Very COOL! The Eyeborg Documentary
WARNING! Video contains very graphic visual content of surgery which may be somewhat upsetting to some of you.
The human body is amazing. Please enjoy and share.
The human body is amazing. Please enjoy and share.
Sep 5, 2011
Dear George Lucas: A tale of too many revisions.
Dear Mr. Lucas;
I write this not on my behalf, but in name of all the Star Wars fans out there. Well, I could say that I have a slight interest in this theme, since I'm a lover of all things evil. Fidel Castro, Satan, Hannibal Lecter - truly evil characters of fiction which kick some serious ass. Did I include Darth Vader in the "Five Villains that Define Me" list? Nah. Vader was bad, but not bad enough for me.
And then you came to make him a total loser wimp. You decided, for some god forsaken reason, to destroy a generation's villain - for your blu ray release.
Sir, you just pissed off a lot of people. And some of them want to know why. You see, George - yeah, I'm on a first name basis now with you - you had a great film that defined a generation, that created geeks, nerds, dweebs... in a good way. You made them feel like they wanted to travel the universe, fighting evil. And yes, I'll even admit that somewhere in my childhood there was a moment where I designed a full X-wing in a discarded Refrigerator box, full of cushions and Barbies (and this will be the last time I'll ever acknowledge it, ever). So there. I did enjoy the Wars when I was little. I did want to use the force, for a while. And when I grew up, while my love for all things Luke and Leia faded, I still thought that Vader kicked ass.
And then, you decided to release your movies on Blu Ray and made, along with Ewoks being able to blink (WTF!?), this piece of crap:
No? NOOOOOO? What IS THIS? Vader's silent sacrifice was EPIC, Mr. Lucas! And YOU RUINED IT! Now this is an example of taking something and revising, revising and revising until you take a good film and destroy it. Jesus H. Christ, let's just hope Coppola doesn't take Godfather and make Santino survive the bullets, because I could not handle it. You CANNOT take a film that has been adored and loved for ages and decide to change a character! You can revise mistakes, you can revise the look, you can touch up all the crap things you wanted on this film so that it can be better, but you cannot suddenly take the single moment of a story and think... let's change it up a bit. Did you think no one would notice?
And talking about revisions and advertising - a word of caution: as a sort of working ad person, I would STRONGLY recommend you to announce stupid changes to your work BEFORE you start selling your product. You see, some of your fans won't like to buy your Blu Ray and discover - AGAIN - that you decided to revise it for the eleventh time. You already had bad marks for revising Han and Greedo's shooting scene: all the CGI in the world cannot make it right again, HAN SHOT FIRST, period.
* Jesus. This post is nerd to the max. Oh well. *
In conclusion, Old George, I need you to do one thing for me. In fact, my generation needs a favor from you. You need to stop meddling with Star Wars films. Period. If you want to revise something, focus on Howard the Duck. If you feel the need to do something creative, I would suggest a radical idea: MAKE A NEW MOVIE. Yes! You can do it! A new movie, about a new subject NON SPACEY or NOT HEROISH. Yes George, you know you can do it.
Use the force.
I write this not on my behalf, but in name of all the Star Wars fans out there. Well, I could say that I have a slight interest in this theme, since I'm a lover of all things evil. Fidel Castro, Satan, Hannibal Lecter - truly evil characters of fiction which kick some serious ass. Did I include Darth Vader in the "Five Villains that Define Me" list? Nah. Vader was bad, but not bad enough for me.
And then you came to make him a total loser wimp. You decided, for some god forsaken reason, to destroy a generation's villain - for your blu ray release.
Sir, you just pissed off a lot of people. And some of them want to know why. You see, George - yeah, I'm on a first name basis now with you - you had a great film that defined a generation, that created geeks, nerds, dweebs... in a good way. You made them feel like they wanted to travel the universe, fighting evil. And yes, I'll even admit that somewhere in my childhood there was a moment where I designed a full X-wing in a discarded Refrigerator box, full of cushions and Barbies (and this will be the last time I'll ever acknowledge it, ever). So there. I did enjoy the Wars when I was little. I did want to use the force, for a while. And when I grew up, while my love for all things Luke and Leia faded, I still thought that Vader kicked ass.
And then, you decided to release your movies on Blu Ray and made, along with Ewoks being able to blink (WTF!?), this piece of crap:
No? NOOOOOO? What IS THIS? Vader's silent sacrifice was EPIC, Mr. Lucas! And YOU RUINED IT! Now this is an example of taking something and revising, revising and revising until you take a good film and destroy it. Jesus H. Christ, let's just hope Coppola doesn't take Godfather and make Santino survive the bullets, because I could not handle it. You CANNOT take a film that has been adored and loved for ages and decide to change a character! You can revise mistakes, you can revise the look, you can touch up all the crap things you wanted on this film so that it can be better, but you cannot suddenly take the single moment of a story and think... let's change it up a bit. Did you think no one would notice?
And talking about revisions and advertising - a word of caution: as a sort of working ad person, I would STRONGLY recommend you to announce stupid changes to your work BEFORE you start selling your product. You see, some of your fans won't like to buy your Blu Ray and discover - AGAIN - that you decided to revise it for the eleventh time. You already had bad marks for revising Han and Greedo's shooting scene: all the CGI in the world cannot make it right again, HAN SHOT FIRST, period.
* Jesus. This post is nerd to the max. Oh well. *
In conclusion, Old George, I need you to do one thing for me. In fact, my generation needs a favor from you. You need to stop meddling with Star Wars films. Period. If you want to revise something, focus on Howard the Duck. If you feel the need to do something creative, I would suggest a radical idea: MAKE A NEW MOVIE. Yes! You can do it! A new movie, about a new subject NON SPACEY or NOT HEROISH. Yes George, you know you can do it.
Use the force.
The more things change, the more they stay the same: Me's Family Reunion.
Last night I decided to be brave enough to endure a family reunion. We were celebrating my grandpa's 60th wedding anniversary, and well, while I do have a very rocky relationship with my father's side of the family, I decided to grow some balls and go.
You have to remember, I am suffering from extreme exhaustion, insomnia, anxiety. Yeah. Real exciting times to attempt this. I'm at my most frail moment, yet I accepted the challenge of being with people who judge me and make my life difficult for hours on end. I must have a loose bolt or something.
So there I was. Haven't seen 99% of any of them in years. Last time I saw them, it was pretty depressing and hard to endure. They have never understood why I disappeared - and never bothered to ask. They just thought I abandoned them, never knowing that it was all of them who pushed me away. They glanced at me with dirty looks - why is SHE here? I wondered they thought. Oh well, here we go again, I thought. Maybe this time will be different.
While I'm sort of glad to report that I didn't leave with an anxiety attack, and for some reason people were a little bit nicer, it was still bittersweet and difficult for me to be there. I came home exhausted, silent, tired, feeling like I had run a marathon.
I learned a lot from life yesterday night, and myself.
I learned that I still have a strong defense mechanism. I learned that when people don't know all the truth they manipulate information so they look good and you always look bad. I learned that I honestly give a shit about that last statement, because I now know who I am, because I'm not lost anymore trying to decipher where I came from; but where I'm going. I learned that the term family is really relative and that it should not have to be related to blood or dna. I learned that people, when they are not really interested, never really listen to you.
I have been working at advertising for almost two decades now. Do you know that 90% of my family asked me - AGAIN - what is it that I do? Shit, I haven't even changed my cellphone number - and they still asked for it, even when I know that they have called me years ago - and I have called. Oh, you work in advertising, huh... What is that, exactly? (They give me this look like I'm a failure, since I come from a doctor/lawyer-or-nothing attitude of life).
So why did this all happen, you might ask, what did they do to me so that I felt this way? I am the first person who comes from a divorce in my family - and they took all their anger and frustration about braking that "record" out on me. They are a very tight nit family, so they cannot fathom the idea of me being independent and not calling every 10 seconds to analyze my next life step. They also reprimanded me constantly on not calling my father or wanting to be with him, without knowing that I tried constantly when I was growing up until I could not take his indifference one second more and gave up.
So you can understand that the winner of the night, the prize of all prizes was this little bit of story...
My aunt is sitting there giving me the all time lecture on why I suck and why it's so bad that I seldom see them anymore. While I'm there taking it like a man, basically, she continues on the theme of all themes: my deadbeat dad. The man that I despise the most, the man that has not cared at all about me and that I stopped caring for when I was a teenager. The man that disfigured the idea of a father, a concept that to this day I cannot relate at all.
"Your father changed for good so much, he's a completely new man" - my aunt tells me.
"Yeah? So why isn't he at his parent's wedding anniversary party" - I replied, empowered.
Silence is sometimes golden.
Kudos for me being right for one second, even if it took 40 years.
You have to remember, I am suffering from extreme exhaustion, insomnia, anxiety. Yeah. Real exciting times to attempt this. I'm at my most frail moment, yet I accepted the challenge of being with people who judge me and make my life difficult for hours on end. I must have a loose bolt or something.
So there I was. Haven't seen 99% of any of them in years. Last time I saw them, it was pretty depressing and hard to endure. They have never understood why I disappeared - and never bothered to ask. They just thought I abandoned them, never knowing that it was all of them who pushed me away. They glanced at me with dirty looks - why is SHE here? I wondered they thought. Oh well, here we go again, I thought. Maybe this time will be different.
While I'm sort of glad to report that I didn't leave with an anxiety attack, and for some reason people were a little bit nicer, it was still bittersweet and difficult for me to be there. I came home exhausted, silent, tired, feeling like I had run a marathon.
I learned a lot from life yesterday night, and myself.
I learned that I still have a strong defense mechanism. I learned that when people don't know all the truth they manipulate information so they look good and you always look bad. I learned that I honestly give a shit about that last statement, because I now know who I am, because I'm not lost anymore trying to decipher where I came from; but where I'm going. I learned that the term family is really relative and that it should not have to be related to blood or dna. I learned that people, when they are not really interested, never really listen to you.
I have been working at advertising for almost two decades now. Do you know that 90% of my family asked me - AGAIN - what is it that I do? Shit, I haven't even changed my cellphone number - and they still asked for it, even when I know that they have called me years ago - and I have called. Oh, you work in advertising, huh... What is that, exactly? (They give me this look like I'm a failure, since I come from a doctor/lawyer-or-nothing attitude of life).
So why did this all happen, you might ask, what did they do to me so that I felt this way? I am the first person who comes from a divorce in my family - and they took all their anger and frustration about braking that "record" out on me. They are a very tight nit family, so they cannot fathom the idea of me being independent and not calling every 10 seconds to analyze my next life step. They also reprimanded me constantly on not calling my father or wanting to be with him, without knowing that I tried constantly when I was growing up until I could not take his indifference one second more and gave up.
So you can understand that the winner of the night, the prize of all prizes was this little bit of story...
My aunt is sitting there giving me the all time lecture on why I suck and why it's so bad that I seldom see them anymore. While I'm there taking it like a man, basically, she continues on the theme of all themes: my deadbeat dad. The man that I despise the most, the man that has not cared at all about me and that I stopped caring for when I was a teenager. The man that disfigured the idea of a father, a concept that to this day I cannot relate at all.
"Your father changed for good so much, he's a completely new man" - my aunt tells me.
"Yeah? So why isn't he at his parent's wedding anniversary party" - I replied, empowered.
Silence is sometimes golden.
Kudos for me being right for one second, even if it took 40 years.
Google WINS: Freddie Mercury 65th Bday Tribute RULES!
Yes. Freddie Mercury was amazing, and if you don't know his music, you are missing on some serious genius material. The world misses you dearly, Fred. You were taken way too early from us. But, the show must go on.
Sep 1, 2011
Zuckerberg, meet Why Advertising Sucks: We joined Facebook!
Yes. I know. It's been quite a while. We really talked about being or not being there. But hey, we need to make a next step, we need to let our little space in the internet get known and what better place than old blue Facebook?
So we're looking for brave new souls that will like our page. Yeah, the writers cannot join it - we really treasure our anonymity - but we promise that we will keep you up to date on all the links as we do on Twitter (WHAT? You are not following us? Now I'm pissed.)
If you like our page, by all means share the joy of the WAS hate to your friends!
(And yes, I'm wondering who will be our first volunteer... that brave soul that without fear says... I LIKE WAS ON FACEBOOK)
Feel Better. Even Morgan Spurlock doesn't get his concepts approved sometimes.
In his latest documentary, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, Morgan Spurlock tackles our bread and butter: advertising. And you know what? It's amusing, funny and sort of a great film to watch - at least for us. While this movie explains the wonderful world of advertising in a very simple way - Morgan suffers just like the rest of us on those little things that annoy the fuck out of us in a very daily way.
Yes, just like us, Morgan gets concepts shut down. Yes, just like us, Morgan gets unnerving comments which make absolutely no sense about his ideas. He gets stupid revisions and gets - are you sitting down? - references in creativity which he needs to follow. This alone made it a great film to watch because hey, if a famous director suffers the same thing I do, then it's a movie I would gladly recommend to any of you out there.
The Greatest Movie ever sold's premise is simple: while going into the ugly effects that advertising have on our public's life (and maybe our own) - he decides that it was going to be very easy to sell ad space in his movie. Starting with the name of the film and all the things he might need to use in the process of making his film... and then he learns... yup. Clients seldom understand amazing and risky concepts, therefore no, I cannot run an ad on your movie. While it would make total sense, lots of brands decided "yup, not for me". Ah, how I've suffered from that line as well.
Is this a movie for the masses? Sort of. People do acknowledge that there is too much advertising around them, but we still encourage more and more production of it. Governments in the US do not limit the ad content that people see around them. We, and I know you will totally agree, are a sort of disgusting social cancer that spreads way fast and everytime you try to remove a little for your own good, it just spreads somewhere else to do more damage.
Oh, and the assholes. Yes! Spurlock's movie has the right balance of normal ad people and gems of bullshitters. Yey! In short, this documentary will make you smile and nod while laughing at what you do on a daily basis. You cannot miss it.
Yes, just like us, Morgan gets concepts shut down. Yes, just like us, Morgan gets unnerving comments which make absolutely no sense about his ideas. He gets stupid revisions and gets - are you sitting down? - references in creativity which he needs to follow. This alone made it a great film to watch because hey, if a famous director suffers the same thing I do, then it's a movie I would gladly recommend to any of you out there.
The Greatest Movie ever sold's premise is simple: while going into the ugly effects that advertising have on our public's life (and maybe our own) - he decides that it was going to be very easy to sell ad space in his movie. Starting with the name of the film and all the things he might need to use in the process of making his film... and then he learns... yup. Clients seldom understand amazing and risky concepts, therefore no, I cannot run an ad on your movie. While it would make total sense, lots of brands decided "yup, not for me". Ah, how I've suffered from that line as well.
Is this a movie for the masses? Sort of. People do acknowledge that there is too much advertising around them, but we still encourage more and more production of it. Governments in the US do not limit the ad content that people see around them. We, and I know you will totally agree, are a sort of disgusting social cancer that spreads way fast and everytime you try to remove a little for your own good, it just spreads somewhere else to do more damage.
Oh, and the assholes. Yes! Spurlock's movie has the right balance of normal ad people and gems of bullshitters. Yey! In short, this documentary will make you smile and nod while laughing at what you do on a daily basis. You cannot miss it.
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