Mondays Can Be Disturbing

Um… do I have to?

Gosh I'm pretty sure I'd rather not, actually

(via)

Friday Is Out Of Context

Do you see this match? Do you see it?

Illustrations from the old Saturday Evening Post really fascinate me. There's something really striking about this image, don't you think? (On the other hand, I think modern-day Ikea catalogues are endlessly disturbing and fascinating, so maybe it's just me.)

I could say something about the vertical composition and the blue eyes, but seriously – it's a heck of a picture, yeah?

Anyhow, the context: it's 1955, and you're not a public service announcement about forest fires, you're actually an advertisement for a timber company. BUY WOOD.

This Friday Is Out Of Context Thoapsl Says: A lumberjack is not a little match girl.

This Is A Poster For A Horror Movie

Joss Whedon apparently wrote half of this.

(Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?)

Great marketing, huh? I found a couple more of them over here.

>20

I've talked about this sort of thing before.

It's not too original. Its returns diminish on repeat viewing. It's probably much the kind of manatee humour that many simply people don't like. Nonetheless: great stuff, huh?

There's a whole bunch of these around, actually – they're all fun – but the mysterious introduction makes this first one the best, I think.

PS: I know, I know I shouldn't have. Roman numeral puns are the lowest form of pun.

EYES THEY ARE NOT YOUR EYES

It was the seaside. At first...

I thought of the number 10. Then I forgot about her.

Nine. The AM. She greeted me. Something sour in the smile. Something familiar, but I couldn't place it.

I failed the interview.
Eight, and getting later. I was trying to relax, but the lighting in the bar was too bright. Everything was shiny. Everything glinted. Way too bright.

I might have been staring. I decided to buy myself another drink.

Seven. The AM, they tell me. The pink is supposed to calm me down. Her smile is supposed to calm me down. It's not working.

I like her dress. Is that allowed? Tell me if that's allowed.

Six, now. I'm walking towards the group of them when I see her head turn. It's weird, though, it's almost like it rotates. The pattern on her jacket was sewn by a robot. Maybe her hat, too.

Have you been looking at the sky? It's a lovely day, it really is.

Five. It's almost five, now. They've been making me wait, you see, they've kept me waiting until it's too late. They're not even pretending to give me another chance. I'm going to need to make another appointment. I want an appointment.

Her lips look like wax. Suddenly, I remember where I know her from –

Four. She's been dyeing her hair every four days. Is she trying to throw me off the scent? Or is it the other way around?

Everything is turning red. It's a signal. It's definitely a signal. I can see her teeth. 

Three. Everything happens in threes. They think I don't notice, but I do. I'm counting everything and I don't forget.

Still red, I notice. Everything I drink. Everything in my mouth. Could she be frightened, now? I'm looking in her eyes, but all I see is 

Two. The two of us now, that's all there is.

She knows. Oh shit, she knows everything

One? Not one? Not one print, not one shred of fibre, not one scrap of evidence. Not a clue. Of course not.

I have nothing left to give her. Nothing left

Zero. I knew it. The ziggurat, she said. This was the end. Was it Mexico, still? We might have made Guatemala during the night. No way to tell.

At the edge of the jungle I took a blade to the gut. She tipped her hat and smiled like the sun coming out.

It's the new range from American Optical. 1959 is looking good.

Friday Is Out Of Context

This is how we sell meat.I LIKE YOUR HAT.

I LIKE YOUR MEAT.

Yes.

For context: find more & similar here, if you like.

This Friday Is Out Of Context Thoapsl Says:  A steak is not poetry in reverse.

Baa

You'd say that cynicism is negative, wouldn't you? If you had to pick a side.

That cynicism is inevitable, and maybe it's often useful, but also that it's essentially sad, somehow. It's the side of the coin that you pay but don't receive. When someone expresses their cynicism, hearts are not uplifted. We don't feel that cynical people are better or more fortunate than others, for their cynicism. If we usually discover our cynicism in adolescence, then we usually react against it later on. And even if we stay cynical (more or less), we soon lose respect for cynicism as a general outlook, I think. After all, so it goes: what does cynicism do to improve our lives? What good is it? Isn't it somehow tawdry and grim and wrong? Dishonourable, even? Wouldn't the world be a better place, if nobody was cynical? 

And okay this is all true or whatever, but: there is one particular upside to cynicism that I've never heard anyone pay much attention to, and I reckon it's a great one. (And maybe it's not even cynicism exactly, maybe it's something else, anyhow, but I'm still going to write it.)

See, the one crucial aspect of culture that most adults are especially cynical towards, across the whole spectrum of the educated modernity? Advertising. Our thresholds for paying attention, for believing, for caring at all what an advertisement says – these thresholds are higher now than they were before. (This is one reason why advertisements from earlier decades have such kitsch value – so many old ads seem so absurd, so transparent and unconvincing. Plastics! New! Duck & Cover! Extra White! – we're cynical towards it, now.) Our higher thresholds, they're higher now because people are generally more cynical about advertising than they used to be, right? And so the advertisers are now so desperate, to grab our ever-more-cynical attention (& affection), that they've had to respond with relentless innovation. Viral marketing, immersive reality games, ads filmed like artsy short films, all of this craft and technique and effect and interest – it's all just a massive effort to trick past our endlessly-renewed cynicism.

And as a result, we have an industry of marketing and advertising that's now hugely more entertaining than it ever used to be. Funnier, more inventive – you might even want to say more intellectual, sometimes. There are ads you might even want to call art, if you were interested in calling things art, I guess. People watch the Super Bowl just for the ads: that's not just a cliche, it's true. And all of this, it's because we've been too cynical to keep paying attention to Sale and New and Value and celebrity endorsement, that same spin forever. If we've seen it before, we're cynical about it already. Give me something else.

Have you watched the youtube of the sheep yet? It's kind of neat, yeah?

It makes you think about things to do with sheep that you hadn't thought of before. New possibilities, new perspectives on an old context. Your mind has changed as a result, has literally expanded the complexity of its structure, now! That's what this advertisement has done for you, in its own small way. It really has made you a better, smarter, wiser person.

(Do you believe me?)

And so anyhow my point, I guess:

If the only cost of a new thought is a quiet reminder to maybe buy Sony afterwards, then I really don't mind the sponsorship. Cynicism can be a force to impel creativity! Isn't that remarkable? Hooray, I think.

(Wait, did I say Sony? I just watched it again, this sheep video is actually for Samsung.

Ah! & there you go, huh :)

So, yeah, sheep. Lots and lots of sheep.

--Sleepy Afternoon Thoapsl