21 June 2006

tolerate mornings

A slightly uplifting but also disturbing and ridiculous TV spot -



Does anybody know who is responsible for this? Very different from the usual work I see for Folger's (how refreshing!). I guess they achieved their goal - it is five after eleven am, and I am in a good mood.

19 June 2006

Catholicism in Japan

I can't remember when I first read Shogun (by James Clavell). It was at some point in high school; I can remember visiting my grandmother in Huntington Beach, California, and not caring at all about the beautiful location I was in. I was forever sitting on the floor of her entryway, devouring the book. Before I knew it, I was over seven hundred pages in, and had no intentions of stopping.

Well, I'm rereading it as part of my summer reading list. I haven't been this deep into a book since I read The DaVinci Code over two years ago. This is different, though. Part of me is in this book. I am learning new things at this point, because I consume the book more voraciously now. I am definitely more educated, and have a larger appreciation for my Japanese heritage now than I did when I was sixteen or seventeen.

I am slightly into book two, and just read that by 1600 most of Nagasaki was Catholic. This was due to the growing Portuguese population (of Japan and Macao) and their bringing of their Jesuit priests with them.

It all makes sense now. I always wondered why I wasn't a Buddhist. How my mother became Catholic. How my grandparents were married. Here is a very brief background (all on my mother's side) -

great grandmother - Japanese (from Nagasaki(I guess she was one of the Catholics of Nagasaki then!)), married a Portuguese (from Macao). I assume they were married under the Catholic Church, then.

grandmother - half Japanese and half Portuguese, married an Italian (was in the navy stationed in Japanese waters). I assume they were married under the Catholic Church.

At some point, there was a move to Shanghai. I have to ask my mother about the time line. The British quarter. That's where my mother was born in 1946.

Three years later, communism started sweeping China. My mother and her parents jumped on a boat. It ended up in Venezuela (Hudibana to be exact - oil camps).

I will finish the story of how I now live in South Florida and have a 100% German father some other time, if anybody is interested. ANYWAY, my grandmother moved to California maybe in the 1970s, and converted to Buddhism. Japanese Buddhism. So, one would think that since she's half Japanese (and from Japan), she's always been a Buddhist. But then HOW would my mother be a Catholic, since a child takes on it's mother's religion (most of the time)? This explains it! Eureeka!

I need to get my hands on an encyclopedia and a family tree. I need to know more and figure out if my hunch is right.

UpFronts

The leading story on today's MediaWeek daily briefing in my INBOX is about upfront buying. I was instantly concerned, because I wondered : WHEN are people going to realize the strategic limitations of this?

BUT! I also read that it was lower than last year's $9 billion, because marketers are saving more money for digital and new programming opportunities. Now, let's just hope that the digital consideration has some kind of strategy behind it, and wasn't decided upon just because "digital is hot right now."

[ x-posted ]

14 June 2006

boycotting Cristal

Apparently Cristal champagne said that the attention they are getting from rappers like Jay-Z is "unwelcome". The spokesman also said that he's sure Krug or Dom Perignon would be happy to have their business instead. What a mistake. geez. Now Jay-Z and the 40/40 Club are boycotting Cristal, according to the press release. I don't know if they prefer snobbery to making a profit, or if they don't know HOW MUCH MONEY the hip-hop industry holds, but this is a stupid, stupid move. This bad word-of-mouth is only going to trickle to the rest of the hip-hop community and to all of the fans (some of which blow thousands of dollars on bottles of Cristal in clubs in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, etc.). boy oh boy.

JFK


two of my favorite brands.

09 June 2006

HOT WHEELS

new Hot Wheels print from Ogilvy. very clever. Click to see the rest.

08 June 2006

inspiring places.

I went to a place on Tuesday. Oh goodness, the feelings I got from this place. I felt alive. I felt the life around me. Certain people would say things that were so dead-on to what I feel and think about, that I would look around to see if they were reading off of something I had put on the Internet in a moment of excitement. The conversations seemed to flow naturally, as if they were scripted, almost. I never felt awkwardness.

There was energy, enthusiasm and an eagerness to shift cultures. I got to talk about my piano, my love for Grups, Tucker Shaw, art, Japanese culture, blogs... I mean, geez. This was FUN. Didn't feel like five and a half hours of interviews at all.

07 June 2006

science balancing culture balancing science


My father sent me to the Phylotaxis web site because he thought the web design was good. I agree, but fell in love more with the content.

The phylotaxis shape is a cousin of the Fibonacci Sequence, and can be found on the seeds on the flat head of a sunflower, pine cones and the position of leaves on a plant stem.

The concept of the shape here applies to how science and culture interact with each other and balance each other out. If culture did not have science, it would be an uncontrollable explosion of chaos. If science did not have culture to balance it out, everything would become "dry and predictable".

The actual Phylotaxis on the site is constantly changing and evolving. It scours the web for news stories of current events and uses the images of science-related events mixed with the images of culturally relevant events. The shape is in constant movement (Brownian motion), dynamically evolving as culture does.

Forgive me if a lot of what I just wrote sounds just like what the web site explains. I'm still trying to wrap my head around this concept.

04 June 2006

Netflix.

I am cancelling my Netflix account, in other news. I am fed up with them. They are taking longer and longer to receive and send movies, which makes my plan ($9.99/mo.) make no monetary sense, and I've had to report two DVDs damaged already since January. I had to quit watching Everything is Illuminated a quarter of the way through because, well, it stopped. And that is a terrible movie to have die on you, because it's so wonderful. It stopped right after the glorious potato scene that was so wonderful and had me laughing five minutes afterwards.

It shouldn't take longer to receive and ship. There is a branch right here in Richmond. And shouldn't they inspect movies once they receive them? I know that you can't always tell if a scratch will make a difference when trying to play a DVD, but I received Coffee and Cigarettes earlier in the year completely cracked. I doubt the mail guys do this.

I am considering switching to the Blockbuster mail service. Even though they are one of those "huge corporations" who can decide to not carry a title if they simply don't feel like it (example - Some Kind of Monster). But, at least if I get a damaged movie, I can drive to Blockbuster and get a replacement. right?

vintage bike, car, and camera technique.

03 June 2006

determination and notebook snippets

Determination might be defined as... performing manual labor for an hour in order to earn enough color print credits to print out a new (and hopefully improved) portfolio to bring to what could possibly end up being the agency of my dreams.

notebook snippets from today



I am sitting at World Cup, writing with a borrowed pen. I've been here several times before, only never outside. There are many clouds in the sky and there is a slight breeze. The garage doors aren't open, but I guess it's okay, since they are clear. There are cute little wire chairs and a table (well, many tables), and a tiny park with benches. There are birds. I just heard one flutter behind me. My plastic 25¢ ring that I got in the convenience store by Patrick's house matches these pages. My $6 plastic white pearly thick bangle matches the whole experience. I have an iced tropical green tea. I guess living in a quiet little suburb is okay sometimes. Three little sparrows just hopped by, and a girl that looks like she belongs in an Urban Outfitters photo shoot just went in. She is wearing a red + white striped tank and big plastic sunglasses on her head. There is a Japanese guy at the table across from me that is wearing an Armani Exchange t-shirt, faded jeans and Pumas. He's reading a Japanese newspaper. Urban Outfitters Girl has a long gold chain necklace around her neck, with a gold anchor hanging from it. Even more so now. I've been thinking that it might be pretty to have a necklace with a treble clef on it.

It's a little chilly now because some of the sun went away and there is a breeze now.



I just came from Carytown, where I looked at some cruiser bikes at Agee's, some alarm clocks and Paul Frank t-shirts at World of Mirth, and some totes and mugs at Mongrel. I was with Josh, whom I had lunch with at my favorite Galaxy Diner. I had really good coffee and a BLT with cucumber salad and mac&cheese. He had corn chowder and a ham+cheese omelette.

(even more so! She has a dusting of freckles on her face!)



He paid for my lunch! So I bought us homemade ice cream at Bev's. He had raspberry with chocolate chips, and I had cake batter ice cream.

I was thinking about Alsfeld yesterday. And the day before, too, I think. It's a typical little village house, with an inverted-V roof, complete with the tiny little attic window right under the point of the top. There is a little metal fence that has dark green outline and bright yellow checkered inside. There are fresh flowers all over the front of the house, with bees everywhere. and a cherry tree. There are a few stone steps going up to the front door. There is a little cross stitch (that I made) in the foyer. My room upstairs was so sparse. a twin bed, light wood frame with pretty sheets and blankets, a light wood night stand with a simple lamp. a little closet, the ceiling diagonally slopes right over the bed (from the roof). There is a little window overlooking the huge backyard and garden where my Opa grew vegetables for the salads. My Oma used to make everything. cakes and soups and schnitzel and potatoes and everything. Every morning there were rolls and slices of hard brown bread, and cherry and strawberry and raspberry preserves that Oma would make from scratch and store in little glass jars in the basement. and cold cuts and hard salami and cheese and butter that was so fresh, and softboiled eggs. I learned how to ride a bike in Alsfeld. up and down that hill.

An indie-looking boy with shaggy hair, some keys and a disposable camera came out and replaced the Japanese guy. He has some sort of iced coffee drink and a paperback copy of Macbeth and a notebook.

still birds.

Either Urban Outfitters Girl or her friend has a delicious perfume on. The air smells clean.

---

[ By the way, I got my journal at Urban Outfitters. It's designed by Jill Bliss and is gorgeous. attention to detail. such a reasonable price $9.99 for what you get. ]
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