I am slowly learning Final Cut.

My first "completed" project. Thanks, friend.

Evil Homer.

Enjoy.

Erykah Badu

I've never really listened to her music beyond her appearances on The Roots albums. After reading about "the controversy" surrounding her new video, I checked it out. I like the song. And not just because she takes off her clothes.

I have a question.

Can someone please tell me where all of these Tea-Party-ers get all this free time during the day to protest and harass members of government and, as they said they plan to do, ruin ousted officials personal lives by following them around all day preventing them from getting jobs or whatever? Unless they're out of work.

In which case, why are they fighting bills that are meant to help them?

Oh right, they can't think for themselves. The Almighty Sarah Palin says they shouldn't support this stuff, and we all know she's a pro at the whole government/politics business. I mean, its so obvious that she's had personal experience with poverty, being uninsured and having to work 3-5 jobs at once just to pay bills and put food on the table. What's that? She hasn't? Oh.

Ashamed to Be an American

Yeah. I fucking wrote it. So what. When things like this are still going on:

A spokeswoman for Democratic Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., said a protester spit on Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., who is also black.

"I heard people saying things today that I have not heard since March 15, 1960, when I was marching to try to get off the back of the bus," Clyburn told reporters.

Freedom of speech is awesome. Without it, I wouldn't be able to write most of the stuff I send out into the world and I definitely wouldn't be able to say most of the things I say. But I hang my head in shame knowing that as an American I am part of this unfounded ignorance and bigotry. That people live and breathe this kind of hatred every day like nothing is wrong with it. Simply despicable.

An Open Letter to All Elected Officials

This most recent healthcare debate is ground zero for what has gone horrible wrong in politics. What should be rightfully characterized as a progressive reform act (in this case, healthcare reform), has been twisted, contorted, reframed and abstracted into the inaccurate depiction of being socialist. This stems from the devastating mutation that politics has undergone over the past three decades. The current political landscape is an aberration of what it used to be. And while I do my best to not pretend that I know what the Founding Fathers of this country intended for us outside of their own writings, I do not think it would be too far from the truth to think some of them would've tried to incite some kind of revolution. (Read the Federalist Papers. According to those, it is our duty to overthrow the government when it no longer functions for the greater good of its citizens. See right now.)

This is the case because, rather than work for the greater good of the people, career politicians (in and of itself a term that should be an oxymoron) do what is necessary to keep their jobs. They shy away from controversy and spout empty rhetoric while doing whatever they can to make the other guy look bad. No one wins an election anymore. Other people lose and their opponents take over by default. It is sickening. American Politics has become a system of failure. Instead of true compromise and authentic bipartisanship, we have the party out of power doing whatever they can to sabotage and undermine the party in power in the hopes that come election-time, the party out of power can sweep the party in power, out of power. And then the cycle repeats. This most recent health bill is a prime example. I will concede that there is plenty more the Democrats could have done to include the Republicans and work out many a compromise to make everyone happy. But the simple fact of the matter is that the Republicans complaining the most about this bill had one idea: Tort Reform. Outside of that, they had nothing. No reasonable, actionable plans that would have made any sort of significant effect on the cost of healthcare to the individual citizen or the government. They made no serious effort to reconcile their differences with the Democrats. Instead, they have done their absolute best to sabotage, mislead, confuse and distort the process and the message so that the Democrats are forced to beat the issue to death in the media, then continue to beat it after its dead to the point where the general public is just plain sick of hearing it. And they still might end up with no bill, no reform; just a lot of resentful voters eager to get rid of the "failures" in office. I sincerely hope this does not happen this time.

On the topic of the current state of American Politics, elected officials from both parties should be mindful of what is taking place. Despite the drone-like behavior of the tea-partyers and birthers and other sects of ultra/mega/uber conservatives, their message of cleaning out all of the career politicians and starting from scratch is not falling on deaf ears. There are many an American voter who are cynical, resentful and all in all fed up with what they have seen transpire over the last three decades and how little of what they believe in actually makes it into bills. Separated, these various groups are inconsequential. Given time, money, motivation, and most importantly, numbers, these seemingly disparate partners could find a common cause in cleaning house (no pun intended) and electing "regular joe/jane" types who are not extremely wealthy and who actually WANT to do things that benefit their constituents (not constituent corporations). Do I think this will happen? Probably not. Most of the factions can't find enough common ground. But I am not ruling it out. Nor do I rule out the possibility of an armed uprising. With the strict laws regarding personal ownership and use of firearms being reviewed by the Supreme Court, the concept that a group of "wronged" citizens taking matters to the next level is not entirely far-fetched. I don't condone it, but I would understand if it happened.

Good to See Murray has a New Gig.

Murray (aka Rhys Darby) of Flight of the Conchords and stand-up comedy fame has a new gig as the pitchman for HP. Shilling for a brand? Always a good career move. If I could, I would shill for lots of brands. Because I believe in so many brands? No. Because it pays well (usually).

Link here.

New Palm Commercial

Nothing stunning here, except that the commercial features a Mos Def track, which is AWESOME. The album this song is from is amazing. Highly recommend it. Arguably the best hip-hop album of 2009, regardless of the what the douches at the Grammy's have to say.

Jon Stewart Explains How the US Government Now Works Exclusively for Corporations.

Clip here. Learn and enjoy. It is simply amazing.

I am so ashamed to be American.

THIS IS WHY OTHER COUNTRIES HATE US!

There are millions of men, women and children all over this world, including this country, who can't get the required calories they need to function. They suffer from malnutrition, disease, starvation and will die from a lack of food. We have some fat, lazy piece of shit in New Jersey who is ONLY the 43rd fattest women in the world and wants to be number one. She eats 12,000 calories a day and runs a food bill of $750 a week. All so she can weigh 1,000+ pounds.

We're going to break that down real quick. Recommended daily caloric consumption for the average person = 2000 calories. Donna Simpson's caloric intake per day = 12,000 calories. Donna Simpson's caloric intake = ENOUGH CALORIES FOR SIX PEOPLE! (or six days worth of food for one person) There are six starving people in this world that could eat for a day with what this woman eats BY HERSELF in ONE DAY! There is one starving person that could eat for six days with what this woman eats in one day.

And we have to ask ourselves why other countries hate us?

I'm pretty sure this might be one of the reasons al Qaeda hates us.

High Fructose Corn Syrup Death March (hopefully)

My favorite part of this article is the first comment at the bottom.

Second comment pretty much sums up what I've been saying. Apparently others have been saying it, too. Go them.

(click image for commercial)

"It's okay in moderation" generally means it's bad for you. Ya know, like alcohol is okay in moderation, but technically still a poison.

Rep. John Boehner Wants to Kill Your Healthcare...

...if you're one of 46 million without healthcare (I am).

First of all, this guy's name is pronounced Bay-ner despite being spelled in a way that makes me think bone-er. Can I get an explanation for that?

All immature jokes aside, this guy is the epitome of a partisan politician. When it was his party running up the tap on the national debt, he was all for it. Did not care about out-of-control spending. If his party sponsored it, he voted for it. Now that it's the other guys, he is anti-everything, the king of the "no to everything" kingdom. I would go ahead and venture a completely un-bold guess that if the Republicans sponsored this exact same bill, he would vote for it. Because he is an asshole and he doesn't care about what is best for this country. He cares about what is best for keeping his job. Article here.

Why is this man orange?

Children Often Have Far More Wisdom Than Adults.

This kid's mother died because she couldn't afford health insurance. So he is now lobbying Congress and doing what he can to spread the word that every American deserves healthcare coverage. This kid is 11 and he gets it. He already has more wisdom, and probably knowledge, than most adults do on this issue.

I had a very similar experience today, albeit on a much LESS serious level. I work in retail. Every day, some adult comes up to me as I work with my name tag on and my super sweet walkie talkie clipped to my pants and asks me if I work there. Today, I had a kid who was at the oldest, 10, ask me if I could get a pair of flip flops down off the wall for him. Didn't ask if I worked there. Just asked for some help. And did it rather politely. Which is much more that I can say for most adults who ask me for help. Inappropriate comparison? Perhaps. But it still makes my point. Adults get so caught up in bullshit that we can't get anything done. Kids don't understand the bullshit, they just see the simplest form of the situation and respond. Perhaps we should take notice every so often. Or elect children to public office. Real children, not the man-boys and woman-girls we have in public office now. Things might work more smoothly.

Your elected officials hard at work.

Go Her!

Lesbian teen suing Mississippi school district that canceled prom due to "distractions."

Article here.

Similar But Not the Same

This website seems a lot like this website , except less original and less intelligent. And poorly written. Then again, what do I know...

Aside from the fact that this picture makes me laugh.

Mississippi At It Again

While I do not doubt that racism is still alive in this country, it would seem that Mississippi is helping to lead the fight in another insanely stupid front again teenage lesbians.

Itawamba Country, a rural country in northern Mississippi CANCELED it's prom because 18-year-old lesbian girl wanted to bring her girlfriend as a date and wear a tux. Oh, no, wait. I'm sorry. They canceled the prom "due to the distractions to the educational process caused by recent events."

Which is a nice way of saying, we canceled it because we don't want no lesbians mucking up our straight-person only happy time prom, because in our little perfect world, teaching kids about safe sex makes them want to have unsafe sex, there's no correlation between abstinence only education and higher rates of teen pregnancy, AND homosexuality is a choice and a pact someone makes with the devil. Phew.

There you go, again, Mississippi. Making the rest of the country proud of your ignorance.

Article here.

Douchebags Unite to Ruin Healthcare Reform

A coalition of ass hats are joining forces and spending in excess of $10 million over 10 days (fast math: $1 million per day) to convince you that healthcare reform is a bad idea, that forcing companies to work more efficiently and lower costs is not in your best interests, and that even though companies and corporations already pay the lowest taxes in the US than any other industrialized country (I think), this plan will bankrupt all of them and lead to the apocalypse and we'll all start fucking goats and killing each other for food. Or something like that.

Doing nothing is not an option. Call your Congressperson. Tell them to vote for reform because I said so. Or for your own reasons. Whatever works for you.

Story Here.

That's It, Pizza Hut! (and AoR, Martin Agency*)

I've had enough. Stop these shenanigans right the fuck now. I'm tired of seeing your 35-year-old guys in your stupid "college student" ads talking about how they'd rather spend their quarters for laundry on Pizza Hut's wings and making jokes about they save "their money, oh no, wait, my parents' money" with your super saver deals, or whatever the fuck you call them. Enough already. It is so blatantly obvious to anyone with a functioning brain that your casting people are fucking churls. NONE of the people in these commercials look remotely close to being college-age. Which is stupid, because these ads are so obviously aimed at college students (played ad nausea um during NCAA BBall games). Seriously, stop it. Go back to square one, recast the actors and rewrite the scripts. And please, while you're add it, find a way to make your stuffed-crust pizza healthier. Because while I do enjoy being in much better shape than I used to be, I sure as shit miss eating that caloric monstrosity.

This man is not college-age.

*If anyone from Martin Agency reads this, please don't disqualify me from consideration for being hired. It's not my fault these ads blow. It's probably not your fault either. Pizza Hut's ads have always blown.

Here's a Nice Read for You Advertising People

Metrics shouldn't dictate creative. Makes sense to me.

Twitter is

My Thoughts On Digital Media

...because what I have to say is most likely not important.

The Internet has changed advertising. Mostly in the sense that lots n lots of ad dollars are going into digital because it is a limitless* media that costs a lot less than a TV spot. It can also be targeted to such a specific group that a niche advertiser can target mothers of 5-year-olds between the ages of 28 and 35 who quit smoking for the pregnancy and then started again, but then quit again, all while working 25-30 hours a week and eating only apples and oranges on the potato diet who live in Iowa. There is much more freedom and less of a concern for censorship or any sort of gate-keeper type of controls. Ideally, you can speak directly to your target via Twitter, Facebook, MySpace (HA! no one uses myspace anymore), LinkedIn, Yahoo!, Google, blogs or any other what-have-yous on the web. If you can actually drive traffic to your website/get people to follow you on the social sites.

Still, just like any other media, if you create something awesome, the people will find it. And then share it. Which is what we** as advertisers and agencies all what. But it also has to make sense. For example, if AARP has a social media guru***, it might be a waste. At least for now. My mom doesn't tweet (although she is on the FB, she doesn't use it all that much). So, tweeting about legislation the AARP is lobbying for or issues they are supporting or even relevant news stories, at this point in time, would be a waste of time for AARP. Some brands just don't make sense having a huge presence on the web outside of a functional, easy-to-navigate website. (God please, we need more easy-to-navigate websites for brands).

"Younger" brands, sure. Tweet your heart out. Start a fan page on facebook. Create some character that blogs about the awesomeness of your brand and how much it can make every one's life awesome. Do it well, though. Keep it interesting. There's nothing worse than investing time in the concept surrounding a product (because that's what a brand is), and end up feeling like their time was wasted following something that never updates or updates with irrelevant crap. While this might not cause said person to switch brands, but in a world where most products are pretty much the same, a favorable opinion of a brand can go a long way to keeping consumers buying your shit.

Again, this all comes down to doing something awesome. The concept, the idea has to be excellent. It has to be something someone looks at/reads/watches and immediately starts thinking of who they know that will enjoy it as much as they just did. And while one can be an expert in mobile/web/out of home/guerrilla/event/ambient/apps/traditional, when push comes to shove, the idea is the seed that everything grows out of (that and the research). And truly great ideas will transcend media and be applicable to any and all media. It just becomes a matter of what jives with the strategy in determining what media to use. Which is when you get in to whether it makes sense for a brand to tweet. For some brands, it makes no sense. Others can monetize their Twitter accounts. And while a guy like me sees Twitter as somewhat of a dumb service with no apparent business model, especially considering very few, if any person is willing to pay for something they previously were able to get for free (see illegal music downloads, facebook, myspace, last.fm, hulu, NYTimes.com, etc.), as a brand, that is completely irrelevant. For now, it's a free service to be co-opted for the benefit of your brand.

All of that being said, I find it hard to understand when a "digital only" shop turns away creative talent for not having enough experience with digital media. While there are nuances with digital that have to be taken into consideration, it just doesn't seem like something that can't be picked up along the way. As long as the creative talent generates great ideas, experience with a certain kind of media should be mostly irrelevant (as long as the agency/company has the staff to fill the void, i.e. a web designer/developer), it shouldn't matter. That being said, the ideas have to be spectacular.

So, there you have it. My thoughts on digital media. You probably don't care, but I feel slightly better without all of that rolling around in my head.

*Someday the Internet will run out of space.

**I say we even though I do not work in advertising (right now, at least).

***I have no idea if AARP has a social media guru/twitter account/facebook page/etc.

The Penguin Never Takes a Day Off. Except for Yesterday, when he took a day off.

This multi-cultural photo made more multi-cultural.