The Sherman Foundation

Deep Water (Documentary Film)

2009-11-08T08:25:00.001-06:00

In 1968, 9 men set out to be the first to sail, non-stop and single handedly, around the world. The film, Deep Water documents the attempts of these men to complete their voyages.

The chronicle contains none of the themes and story lines one would expect to find in documentary about a great race. There is no classic rivalry played out between two men until the bitter end, no come from behind victory by an unlikely contestant no harrowing survival and no man against nature overcoming. Instead, the narratives turn inward as these men are absorbed by their isolation over the 10 months at sea. The end is an unexpected and heartbreaking anticlimactic tragedy and the best documentary I've seen in a long time. Tt is "a movie which will reduce the hardest of hearts to a shipwreck" (The Daily Telegraph).

I was tempted to write a summary of the story but I think I've said too much already. Just watch it.

Wikipedia entry: Deep Water

IMDB: Deep Water

On a related note there is a good piece in this month's Vanity Fair by James Wolcott, "I'm a Culture Critic Get Me Out of Here: Amid the smoldering wreckage of popular culture, the author blames Reality TV, which has not only ruined network values, destroyed the classic documentary, and debased the art of bad acting, but also fomented class warfare, antisocial behavior and murder." (December, p.146)

Inforgraphics: Resurrected, Feared and Seeking Converts

2009-11-08T08:00:00.000-06:00

Via Rufus Via Nixta

Heritage as a theme in fashion and brands

2009-10-21T08:30:00.000-05:00

Given all the talk of the decline of America's preeminence as well as all the chaos and uncertainty in the world right now it should come as no surprise that people are looking back at earlier times in American life with nostalgia. A recent piece in the Wall Street Journal reported on the "American Heritage" trend in fashion. Varsity sweaters, newsboy caps, tweed, argyle sweater vests, checked shirts and shawl-collar cardigans are all on the comeback.

(WSJ:Designers Mine American Heritage for Rags and Riches)

This may be more accurately described ads the peaking of trends that have been in play for several years now. Things like argyle, have been around for several years now. Lacoste's comeback and Pan Am bags are old news. In New York City bars and restaurants the "hunting lodge" has been in full effect for many years.

Ralph Lauren has always been the master when it comes to capturing and romanticizing American Heritage.

I actually have a theory about the aesthetic narrative of Ralph Lauren for women.

There is a cliche moment in many films, a morning after moment between couples, the woman is dressed in the button up shirt the man had on the night before. There are many ways to read this: symbolic submission, a symbol of their coming together as one. She on some level has crossed over INTO his world

The aesthetic narrative behind Ralph Lauren is that moment on a larger cultural scale. Ralph Lauren leverages iconography and symbolic imagery more effectively than any other fashion brand. It is a storybook narrative of a classic, eastern-seaboard America. A folklore or industrious and wealthy men who's patriarchy is so powerful that even the women's clothes seem fashioned from "his" world from things pulled from "his" drawers.

That ain't no woman, it's a man, baby!
-Austin Powers

(From my essay: The Aesthetic Narrative of Ralph Lauren for Women)

A few years ago Canadian Club wiskey ran a heritage campaign that celebrated dad with the tagline "Damn right your dad drank it". It didn't do very well. I think they were on to something but missed the mark by centering the campaign on dad. Grandpa, more often than dad is the guy esteemed and revered as cool in a young mans eyes.

Related Previous Essays:

Life's Sweet Revenge. Part 1

Life's Sweet Revenge. Part 2: Decadence

Life's Sweet Revenge. Part 3: Pop Decadence, The Candy Macabre and Bourgeois Estate Sale

Facebook and Twitter Stats

2009-10-18T11:35:00.004-05:00

Both pieces below Via Hitwise Intelligence:

Facebook accounts for 1 in every 7 UK page views

Facebook accounted for 14.5% of all UK Internet page views during September 2009, equivalent to 1 in every 7. The social network is the second most visited website in the UK after Google UK, but because users view a much larger number of pages per visit, Facebook is the clear leader in terms of page views. As the table below illustrates, it currently receives more page views than Google UK, eBay UK and YouTube combined.

Twittered Out?

On the heels of yesterday's rumor that Twitter is close to securing an additional $100 million in financing, which would place the company's valuation in the $1 billion range, I decided to take a quick look at Twitter's market share of visits to see if the hype is matched by site traffic.

Another angle on measuring new user adoption is to track the volume of searches on "Twitter." As we can see in both visits and searches, Twitter appears to have hit a resistance point as of April 2009.

To explore the hypothesis that slowing and now decreasing market share of visits may be attributable to the drop in new users, we can turn to our Experian Hitwise Clickstream report that shows new versus returning users from the top Twitter traffic sources. Here's a table for those traffic sources in April 2009.

Talking the Talk (The language of your target audience)

2009-10-16T09:10:00.001-05:00

Pepsi AMP's “Before You Score" iPhone app categorizes women into predictable, unimaginative stereotypes and gives guys pickup lines tailored to each "target". I'm really surprised by the apparent controversy and backlash (Via Mashable: Pepsi and AMP: We Apologize If Our App Was In Bad Taste). It's not shocking. In fact, it's very lame. The stereotypes themselves are cliche and pedestrian: Aspiring Actress, Artist, Bookworm, Goth, Nerd, etc. The girls in the cruddy illustrations — this may be the most revolting element — look like trannys. The copywriting is utterly stupid (the first pickup line for the "princess" type is "I'm so rich my driver has a driver". This is controversial? I wouldn't be surprised if the controversy is manufactured PR.

AMP Energy Website

This does however give me the opportunity to discuss something I've been thinking about, the widening gap between the language of consumers and that of marketers.

Coded language has always served the purpose of creating a differentiating identity that bonds insiders of a group as well as a membrane that keeps outsiders shut out. In general, verbal expression in contemporary culture has become increasingly loaded with color, profanity, shock and appall.

The language of advertising, which always presents a kind of theatricized reality, is constrained not only by federal law but the desire on the part of marketers to say nothing that could possibly offend anyone. The result is an unwillingness or an inability on the part of marketers to speak to their audience the way that members of their audience speak to one another. This becomes painfully apparent when a product or brand aspires to be edgy or is targeted at youth or urban markets. One of the reasons the ironically-sexist advertising for Axe deodorant has been so successful is that it "talks the talk" of its target audience. It talks about what their young male audience talks about — girls — and it does so in a way that makes you feel as if you're listening in on the banter of these kinds of guys. Most advertising, including that bullshit for Pepsi's AMP, doesn't tread anywhere near the reality or voice of their audience. It doesn't even dare to be as provocative as an episode of Entourage, Weeds or even Sex in the City.

See also (previous posts):

Axe Deoderant

Ironic Sexism

Graphic Designer vs client

2009-10-16T09:05:00.000-05:00

100 Greatest Hits of YouTube in 4 Minutes

2009-10-16T09:00:00.001-05:00

The web-video version of a "clip show". Short form video content condensed and compiled.

Via How It Happened

Technology: Foreseen/Unforeseen: (Mobile Phones & The Segway Scooter)

2009-10-15T07:58:00.002-05:00

One of the most fascinating aspects of technology is it's unpredictability. We are about as good at predicting what will stick as we are knowing what will be a smash-hit pop song or movie. Even more confounding are surprising ways in which technology is ultimately adopted and used.

See my previous essay:
Technology and Culture: The foreseen and the unforeseen.

A piece in last month's Economist: Eureka moments: How a luxury item became a tool of global development, discussed the remarkable impact of the mobile phones on developing countries.

How did a device that just a few years ago was regarded as a yuppie plaything become, in the words of Jeffrey Sachs, a development guru at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, “the single most transformative tool for development”? A number of things came together to make mobile phones more accessible to poorer people and trigger the rapid growth of the past few years. The spread of mobile phones in the developed world, together with the emergence of two main technology standards, led to economies of scale in both network equipment and handsets. Lower prices brought mobile phones within reach of the wealthiest people in the developing world. That allowed the first mobile networks in developing countries to be set up, though prices were still high.

Compare the mobile phone initially "regarded as a yuppie plaything" and the Segway scooter. The Segway at the time of it's unveiling was declared a revolutionary invention that would transform the world (in particular developing nations) but has thus far turned out to be a rather silly plaything. In most of my sighting the scooter is being used for marketing promotions. Of course, it may be too early to tell what will become of the Segway. Afterall, if history teaches us anything, it's that nobody knows anything.

Image above from my post titled: Chariots of Hummus

Rory Sutherland: Life lessons from an ad man

2009-10-14T15:36:00.003-05:00

Participation = Destruction #5 (Ok, I've destroyed my television. Now what?)

2009-10-11T11:46:00.006-05:00

2 interviews with authors related to my theme of Participation = Destruction.

KERA Think interview with Bob Garfield, author of "The Chaos Scenario, Amid the Ruins of Mass Media, The Choice for Business is Stark: Listen or Perish". I agree with Bob Garfield's somewhat bleak outlook. The disintermediation caused by technology will create more economic destruction and general chaos in the coming future. That said, his lament over the end of the ad supported content model makes me cringe a bit.

I've been thinking about the classic, harsh criticisms of traditional media. Books like Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television by Jerry Mander and Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman.(Paperback). It will be interesting to view all of this again in 10 years. Was television evil? Was it great? Was it a great loss? As the techno-media landscape continues to go through this incredibly disruptive period of change the perspectives get more and more confusing. And interesting.

NPR's On the Media: Digital Delusion: an interview with Matthew Hindman the author of "The Myth of Digital Democracy".

"Conventional wisdom says that the Internet has democratized politics by giving a direct voice to citizens. And while the bar for publishing - via blogs, podcasts and YouTube videos - has never been lower, there’s a difference between speaking and being heard."

Destroy Christmas!

2009-10-11T10:49:00.005-05:00

This morning on NPR: Ho Ho No: Retailers Open Christmas Season Early. Despite, and because of the weak economy and growing unemployment, Christmas is already hitting retail shelves.

This trend continues year after year getting ever more ridiculous. In 2006 I wrote:

...the 3rd week of July and they already had some Halloween candy and Autumn decorations out. The shelf-life window for holidays keeps getting opened wider and wider. Where does it end? Holidays overlapping one another? Maybe we'll start to see holiday mash-ups. Wearing costumes and going house to house to exchange gifts. With the divorce rate what it is and the remarrige configurations getting more and more complicated many people are already do a house-to-house visitation style on Christmas. We already have the evil stepmothers why not add costumes. (Holiday Mashups)

It's a greedy "kill the goose that lays the golden eggs strategy" that retailers are engaging in. There is only so far you can stretch symbols and traditions before they break. They either become meaningless and collapse or become shells of their former selves. Santa could come simply to stand for "sale". The ultimate potential outcome is the destruction of Christmas. Which I find a rather delightful thought to entertain.

Anyone care to entertain a guess in which year Christmas will slam up against the 4th of July?

Related: Revisionist Shermanism: How the Grinch (tried to) Save the World.

"Civic Pride Product"

2009-10-10T14:50:00.003-05:00

Last night at dinner someone described beer to me as a "civic pride product". By this he meant that people in different cities, parts of the country (and perhaps world) embrace, identify with, and defend this type of product as a part of their cultural identity. What else could be framed from this perspective? Newspapers? Baseball teams?

Un/Certainty: (Lack of) Ethics in Documentary Filmmaking.

2009-10-10T14:32:00.004-05:00

NPR's On The Media Posdcast, True Enough: Ethics in Documentary Filmmaking. An interview with Patricia Aufderheide on her study of (and problems with) ethics and truthfulness in documentary films.

Some of the revelations:

"Winged Migration": The birds were not wild birds but raised for the intended purpose of filming them.

"March of the Penguins": Penguins are not monogamous and mate for life, as the film would lead us to believe. (They mate seasonally.)

In "Mighty Times" Supposedly historical footage was reenacted.

From a wildlife documentary shoot:

We tried to shoot a few, and missed both of them. Unbeknownst to me, the [animal wrangler] broke the next rabbit’s leg, so it couldn’t run. So we got one. On the next take, they then asked, “Should we break its leg again?” . . . the DP [director of photography] was sitting there, saying “No, I’m sure you wouldn’t want to do it,” but nodding his head yes. I made the decision, let them break it. I regret it. It eats me up every day. I can sort of rationalize this, that it might be killed by a natural predator. But for us to inflict pain to get a better shot was the wrong thing to do.

Un/Certainty: Apollo Moon Missions

2009-10-10T14:24:00.003-05:00

It appears as if the veracity of the Apollo Moon Missions have been confirmed by Indian satellites. I kind of liked being uncertain about this, the debate over whether or not this actually took place was the most interesting part of it's history.

No Conspiracy in U.S. Moon Mission
Panaji: In a considerable downer for space conspiracy theorists, Chandrayaan-1's terrain-mapper camera has recorded images of the landing site of U.S. spaceship Apollo 15 and tracks of its lunar rovers that were used by astronauts to travel on moon's surface nearly four decades ago, a scientist said Wednesday.

Prakash Chauhan of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said the images captured by the hyper-spectral camera on board Chandrayaan-1 debunked conspiracy theories that have claimed that the Apollo 15, the fourth U.S. mission to land on the moon was a hoax.

"We managed to identify the landing site of the Apollo 15 shuttle on the basis of the disturbances on the moon's surface. Our images also show tracks left behind by the lunar rovers which were used by the astronauts to travel on the moon's surface," Chauhan, who is presently attached to the Space Applications Centre at Ahmedabad, said.

Where on Earth...

2009-10-09T16:44:00.005-05:00

have I been?

I haven't posted much lately. I've been traveling a lot, working long hours. I have lots and lots of things to write about and will get to them soon. In the meantime, some shots from the glamor that is my life these days:

A 50 something year old businessman playing solitaire on the plane. For real?

A 50 something year old businesswoman eating a Fiber One yogurt type thing. In plain sight. For real?

Participation = Destruction #4: 50 things that are being killed by the internet

2009-09-13T09:30:00.001-05:00

A list compiled by the Telegraph UK: 50 things that are being killed by the internet. The big one I think they missed is the value of trivia knowledge. Here a just a few of my favorites from the list:

1. The art of polite disagreement

11. Music stores

13) Memory

16. Hoaxes and conspiracy theories
The internet is often dismissed as awash with cranks, but it has proved far more potent at debunking conspiracy theories than perpetuating them. The excellent Snopes.com continues to deliver the final, sober, word on urban legends.

32. Chuck Norris's reputation

34. Mainstream media

50. Your lunchbreak

Previous essays in this series:

Participation = Destruction (1 Billion Internet Users, The Tyranny of the Masses and the Death of Digital Culture)

Let's Play Lord of the Flies! (Participation = Destruction #3)

Creative Surplus & Virtual Unemployment (Participation = Destruction)

God's Special Creatures: Ranked by Human Fatalities

2009-09-12T10:25:00.000-05:00

An amusing little list I found on BlurtIt: The 10 most dangerous animals in the world based on the number of fatalities per year. I love the range and spread on this list. Starting with bears and a meager 5-10 kills a year. Sharks and Crocodiles are to be expected but the number of kills for crocs is a little surprising. Taking the number one spot, Mosquitoes, trouncing the competition with 2-3 million fatalities a year. Edward Deming, one of the few human beings that deserves to be described as a "management guru" once said that most organizations are destroyed by things that people don't even recognize. Such is life. Inserted into the list are links to a few relevant pieces from The Foundation.

10. Bears: 5-10 fatalities per year
Read my essay: On Anthropomorphism: Bears

9. Sharks: About 100 fatalities per year

8. Jellyfish: About 100 fatalities per year

7. Hippopotamus: 100-150 fatalities per year

6. Elephants: 300-500 fatalities per year

5. Crocodiles: 600-800 fatalities per year
Read: An excerpt from my memoirs: Tears of a Crocodile Clown: Sick Days (early bouts with megalomania).

Read: Words, Crocodiles and My Red Man-Whore Belf

Read: Mother Nature, Bloody Bitch: Gustave (the giant crocodile) Burundi's "Man Removal Machine".

4. Big Cats: About 800 fatalities per year

3. Scorpions: 800-2000 fatalities per year

2. Venomous Snakes: 50,000-125,000 fatalities per year

1. Mosquitoes: 2-3 million fatalities per year

Ikea Ignites Typographic Outrage Among Graphic Designers

2009-09-10T10:11:00.008-05:00

Graphic designer's can be very pissy, but that's the nature of their calling. For the finest practitioners of the craft, sweating the tiniest of minutia and detail is at the core of their vocation. The latest company to ignite pissy designer outrage is Ikea. I just read in the Guardian: (Verdana: Ikea's flat-pack font) that they've changed the font used in their catalog from a customized version of Futura to Verdana.

I went to the Ikea site to take a look at the online version of the catalog, and must admit that I did recoil a bit. It's obvious that the decision must have been one made on the basis of economic efficiencies. Verdana was designed for Microsoft as a default system font in 1983. It was created specifically as a free and widely distributed font that would look good at reading sizes of the relatively low resolution of computer screens. And it does. It was created by one of the greatest modern typographers alive, Matthew Carter, who also designed such modern classics as Meta and Myriad. Where I cringe a bit is the way it looks used at large sizes. This is a screenshot of a spread from the new catalog's online PDF version:

Although originally trained as a graphic designer, I believe these situations should be framed in a way that is broader than simple aesthetics. The role of aesthetics in design is to create resonant meaning. Most people don't care what font Ikea uses because it affects them in ways that are too subtle to break perceptual threshold and cause notice. That said, these things do matter because they creates different meanings and different experiences.

Although much of it is quite cool, quirky and well "designed" the furniture Ikea makes can at times border on being junk (from a quality perspective). In his novel Generation X, Douglas Coupland referred to it as "semi-disposable Swedish furniture". What design and the brand do is augment this fact and create an experiential value that compensates (and perhaps masks) this reality. The customized version of Futura that Ikea used (called Ikea Sans) has a quirkiness and history that is not only tied to the brand's history but to European design history as well. The switch to Verdana, becuase it is modern and has strong computer and utilitarian connotations undermines this function of design for the brand (and it does look gross when used at large sizes on those spreads).

An Ikea catalog from the mid 60's.

Related links:
Now Public: IKEA Font: Futura to Verdana, What Changed and Why?

The Guardian: Verdana: Ikea's flat-pack font.

Business Card Design: Billionaire Stewart Rahr

2009-09-10T10:00:00.001-05:00

"The front of the mock billion-dollar bill shows a picture of Rahr golfing with Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, and bears the slogan, "If I don't tell you how great I am, who will?" The back includes a picture of his $45 million Hamptons home, where he hosts charity benefits." (New York magazine: Introducing Stewie Rah Rah, Bearer of Awesome Business Card)

You're a total cock, but a funny one. I applaud you Stewart, well done!

"Yes, a secret man" is an anagram of...

2009-08-28T06:04:00.004-05:00

"Yes, a secret man" is an anagram of Caster Semenya's name, the controversial, South African female athlete suspected of being a man. (The 18-year-old ace is said to have very high levels of testosterone in her body.)

Via NixtaDaily Star UK

Why one wife now chooses to shop alone

2009-08-26T13:02:00.001-05:00

Thank you Rufus.

Night of the Adeaters

2009-08-11T23:08:00.001-05:00

Lemonade

2009-08-11T23:00:00.002-05:00

A film about people who have been laid off from the advertising industry:

Lemonade The Movie, website

Pepsi Logo Redesigns / Coca-Cola's Brand Consistency

2009-08-08T09:06:00.001-05:00

The blog that I pulled this from had this titled as "Brand Logo Consistency". That probably isn't the most useful way to think about the comparison. Both are in fact true to the nature of each's brand. Coke's position has always been about authenticity, it is the original, "The Real Thing". Coke's logo should and has always been true to that. It's a timeless and iconic symbol. Pepsi on the other has always played hip, upstart to reframe Coke's position as stodgy heritage. Pepsi is the brand of youth, their latest tag "The Voice of a New Generation" has been the fundamental theme for years. No matter what year it is, Pepsi is that generation's cola. Now that I think about it, the new logo makes Pepsi look a bit like an old tart in hot pants. Somehow she's still getting away with it.

1992–1993: "Be Young, Have Fun, Drink Pepsi"

1997–1998: "Generation Next" - with the Spice Girls.

1999–2000: "For Those Who Think Young"/"The Joy of Pepsi-Cola" (commercial with Britney Spears/commercial with Mary J. Blige)

Even more amusing than the Pepsi logo changes is the list of slogans from the Wikipedia entry on Pepsi. It's like looking through a high school yearbook. Some truly embarrassing, insipid shit.

Mark Borchardt on the whole Coke/Pepsi thing, in an outtake from American Movie (perhaps the greatest documentary ever made.)

Thanks Meruleru!!!

The Economy Where You Live (Interactive Map of the US)

2009-08-08T08:20:00.000-05:00

From NPR, Interactive Map: The Economy Where You Live. (Foreclosure, jobless rates and household income by county.)