Subliminal Advertising

Since everyone let me know which of my recent video posts you liked and had seen before, I thought I’d share one more. I really don’t want to turn this blog into an aggregator of random videos, so this will be the last one for a while. It’s pretty interesting, though. Take a look.


via videosift.com

Hedda Gabler

I saw Hedda Gabler last Friday night. It was my second attempt to see it; the first time I went, a week before, I had to really talk myself into it. I was pooped as pooped could be that day and really wanted to go home and crash. With the help of a coworker, I convinced myself to go. I went out to dinner by myself at the Edison Cafe, reading some homework over a sandwich. I got to the theater around 7:50, and the lobby was teeming with people. They hadn’t opened the house yet, which is definitely a sign that something is amiss. A few minutes after I got there, they announced that Mary Louise Parker wouldn’t be performing that night. The cast (along with MLP, it stars Michael Cerveris (a great stage actor I’m sure most of you haven’t heard of but who I love) and Peter Stormare (the guy from those weird VW commercials and, probably more famously, Abruzzi in Prison Break) was a big part of why I was attending. Along with half the audience, I decided to trade my ticket in for a different performance; this is allowed whenever someone above the title is out. It must be hard to be the understudy for a famous actor, always going on to half empty houses and knowing that even the people who stuck it out are annoyed to see you but just didn’t feel like traveling into the city again a different night. I’m convinced that MLP was just being a diva that night, too. It doesn’t take until 7:55 to realize that your leading lady has laryngitis, but it could take that long to realize that you can’t convince her to stop throwing a hissy fit. Of course, it could be something far more innocent, but until I have proof I’m going to assume it was a tantrum,-induced absence.

I went back the other night and saw it with the full cast on display. The show was uneven, but I liked it well enough to stay through the second act. I thought Peter Stormare was weird (I guess that’s his thing); it was like he had wandered in from a different production. Cerveris played Jorgen Tesman as something of a simpleton, and I wished that he’d imbued the character with more depth. It’s well within his acting abilities to do. Parker was mostly excellent, though she has some Parker-ish inflections that seem to creep in whether she’s playing a miserable 19th century woman, a 1980s pill-addicted loon, or a modern day pot mom. Still, I love her, so I guess it’s ok.

The second act left me less impressed than the first, but I’d still recommend the show for theater people, provided you can get a cheap ticket (the $20 Hip Tix, for instance). It’s not worth a bigger investment than that, unfortunately.

What Do You Use?

The final project in one of my classes (yes, we're only half way through the semester, and I'm already being prompted to think about the final paper) needs to focus on a company that is specifically targeting me in their marketing outreach. I could be their focus because of demographics, behavior, psychographics--really anything.

So now I'm wracking my brain trying to figure out what product or service to write about, and I'm having a stupidly hard time deciding. Who do you think targets you? What brands do you find yourself returning to time and again?

Random Videos

These two videos came up in my classes over the last week as examples of strange and wonderful things that become internet phenomena. I had never seen either before, though. Have any of you?

Charlie Bit My Finger


Where the Hell Is Matt?

What’s Swedish for “Stick to the list?”

Todd, Dylan, Sofia, and I are off to Ikea today. The last time we went we entered when it was still bright daylight outside and only realized that the sun had set when we were checking out. That place is like a casino in the sense that it’s all enclosed with no clocks anywhere (except for the boxed ones they’re selling, of course). It’s impossible to know what time it is, and so you end up spending both more time and money than you ever expected. This time, it’s all about a list: shelves, hooks, a file container of some kind. No more impulse purchases, which for me are always about baking materials that I don’t need and don’t use, like the bread pan in which I’ve never made bread and the cake decorating kit, with which I’ve decorated nary a cake. I still have high hopes for both purchases, but until I put them to use I’m cutting myself off from buying more. Except for maybe a rolling pin...I really need a rolling pin....

Resurfacing

Hello all! I feel like I’m just coming up for air after a busy couple of weeks, and I’ve missed blogging and keeping in touch. I owe lots of people emails and am generally ignoring everyone right now—it’s not personal!

While you’d think that half way through the semester I’d be adjusted to the new schedule, you’d be wrong. I’m in what I believe to be a temporary lull (low point?) between the excitement of starting this program and the point at which I’m fully adjusted to both the early morning hours and the added work. All will be fine, but I’m finding myself crashing early fairly often and simply unable to make myself stay at the computer when my work is finally done (hence the lack of emails and blogging).

Here’s a snapshot of some of what I’ve been up to:

School (duh). I’ve survived two group projects and been reminded of both the good and bad of working this way. The bad: I always feel like I’m doing more than at least half the group, and often more than everyone. I realize that this can’t always be true, but damn does it feel that way. The good: I’ve found a couple of people in my program that I really like. It’s definitely better to have people to drink with after class and with whom to trade papers. This last was especially helpful in my last assignment. It was a public relations assignment, and I have no experience whatsoever in PR. My prof has a unique approach, where class discussions are always engaging, the frequent guest speakers are great (last week: Peter Shankman who was fabulously interesting), and we never, ever talk about the shit he wants us to prove we know in our homework. Oh, yeah, and there’s no textbook. So basically we’re on our own to figure out what he wants us to know for the papers. It’s actually not an approach I’m particularly fond of, being intolerant of ambiguity as I am. Luckily, two of the friends I’ve made have worked in PR and were really valued resources.

Because we’re talking about media all the time in these classes, I’ve also seen a few random YouTube clips that have gone viral but somehow passed me by. I’ll share them in the next few days in case you guys missed the “Where is Matt” and “Charlie Bit My Finger” boats, too.

Now that I have a few minutes to write, I’m going to get some posts ready for the next couple of days, too. I’m back in the blogosphere (at least until I remember how much homework I have...)!

Alec Baldwin: The Funniest of the Baldwin Brothers

Even though this isn't really safe for work, my coworker sent it to me this afternoon anyway. I was bold enough (stupid enough?) to watch it at my desk and even though I should have saved it for home viewing, I couldn't turn it off. Alec Baldwin is just that funny.