Olympic-Sized Task

This is an ad for Nike, which is a company that we all know has an unlimited budget and unlimited access to every athelete that's ever held a stick, tied a lace, or verbed a third noun.

Call me old-fashioned (please?) but I think they do their best work when they shave all those hairless people off of their pages and go with a really simple concept like the one displayed above.

They made a bold choice of not even including their logo in the print, relying instead on the fact that they're so well known, people will connect the synapses. I personally think the Nike font leaves me in a grey area (50 shades, to be exact) because it's oddly similar to the font that SKYY Vodka uses... Hmmmmmmm.....

Obviously this is not meant to sell vodka if not maybe under the guise of liquid courage.

This ad reminds me of this time I went diving with my friends and a little boy stood atop a 3 meter diving board for LITTERALLY 2 hours. He was up there so long that the lifeguard whisled out 'last call' and it was do or die for the kid. I think he litterally thought he might die. Literally.
Everyone in the pool dutily got out but all the pool people had noticed that this kid had set up camp up there and began to cheer him on. His annoyed father was like ''Time to go Jimmy.'' (or whatever kids are named these days... Skylar?)

And finally after two hours he jumped, kid style, into the pool, and made it out alive. He had had so much fun doing it that he wanted to go again, but alas, the pool was closed. 

The moral of the story: just jump. You won't regret it.

...unless of course, you die.

Montreal May 22, 2012

What does it mean to be a citizen?

Lately I've been really re-evaluting social media and how it pertains to citizen journalism. 

Today marks day 100 that Montreal students have been on strike, opposing massive tuition increases and student debt. I'm not 100% sure on all the details behind the rallies, but I've met many students who have been hit hard by this movement over the course of my first week here.  I remember how worried we were a while back when the professors at the U of W were planning to strike It was my graduating year.

Today I was lucky enough to stumble into the biggest protest march in Montreal to date on my walk home from work. Tensions are so high here, I can only wonder what it will take for either parties to form an agreement. Two nights ago, riot police unloaded by the bus-full and were walking the streets in formation, banging on their shields like the guys from 300. Yesterday a student threw a moltov cocktail. New laws are being passed every day, making this beautiful, cultural city look more and more like a war-torn police state.

The last two shots are from my bedroom window. The people are still marching by as I write this.

Boys and Girls

This website is a cool way of checking out the difference in gendered advertising. It's no secret that there is a formula to most toy commercials, and the mashup website lets you play around with the audio and video of some samples.  I see it as a reflection on the persisting gender norms that still exist today. The biggest one is probably that girls still like pink and boys still like blue.

The Don

  

<3

The Flip Side

 

Great new ad campaign by LG. Body copy in the corner says 

"Home theater 3D sound LG.
 Every side of the sound."

My Love Montage

Here is my montage.
There are many like it,
But this one is mine.

Assignment: Dionysus in Stony Mountain

I’m no stranger to the stage. Though I have rarely been on one, save for some high school plays many moons ago, I’ve been an avid pursuer of live theatre and musicals for a good chunk of my life.

 I have my parents to thank for this. Our family road trips of the past were serenaded by both Andrew Lloyd Webber’s collected works and the Phantom of the Paradise soundtrack. My mom and dad are long-time season ticket holders for the Manitoba Theatre Centre, and so whenever one of them couldn’t make it out, I was able to tag along. The productions that this venue holds are fortunate to have huge budgets, and so the pieces are usually spectacular. 

I think it’s safe to assume that the Rachel Brown Theatre’s production of “Dionysus in Stony Mountain” had a relatively low budget, and relied mostly on the content of the play to carry it forward. 

It began as a one-act production in Winnipeg’s 2009 Fringe Festival, which encompassed the first half of production that ran from March 29 to April 8. This time around the director, Steven Ratzlaff, added an intermission and a second act to further flesh out his characters.

The play deals with many loaded topics, some of which surely went over my head. They include, but aren’t limited to: Nietzche’s theories, drug culture, assimilation, slave morality, child criminals, the justice system, the subjectivity of sanity, religion and a search for meaning. These are all rushed over much too quickly by the two actors, Sarah Constible and Ross McMillan. 

I understand that plays are usually pretty exclusive; based on the price of tickets alone, most live productions are inaccessible to the majority of the population. In the case of “Dionysus in Stony Mountain”, the content also felt exclusionary. I’ve taken a few philosophy courses in university and I could barely keep up with the script. Nevertheless, the Wednesday night showing sold out, but the crowd was noticeably older. A lake of white hair was peppered only by the heads of my classmates.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen some great productions at the Rachel Brown Theatre. One that stands out the most in my mind is their 2009 production of “Age of Arousal”, which delved into the lives of suffragettes. In this production, the content was loaded, but it was explored in a more fun and engaging way. 

Clearly “Dionysus in Stony Mountain” had a specific intended audience. I commend the risk that Ratzlaff made in presenting this deep, philosophical play in a medium that is getting overshadowed by the Goliath that is the Winnipeg Jets. However, I think the rapid way in which the script fires off complex theories, and the fact that the first half is essentially a monologue, would be more convincing and engaging if it were unpacked in, say, a novel.  

But that’s just my opinion. I like my plays to be filled with cats, puppets, amazing technicolor dreamcoats, Jesus Christ superstars, sweet transvestites, Argentinean First Ladies, a boy who wants more, producers, Jets (but not the ones on ice) and Sharks (ditto), and of course, a disfigured musician who sells his soul to the devil for the woman he loves.  

Best/Most confusing musical ever