The End Of The Venue.

For my friend James Wood.

So, ever since I moved back to Mexico I've been mainly writing (if at all) in Spanish. Of course, I'm in Mexico. I wasn't aware that some of my friends (I don't even know why I say "some" since I am only aware of one of them) back in the States still read this blog. Thank you. And since my good ole' brit friend James isn't going to learn to speak or read Spanish in the short term, this one goes out in Shakespeare’s own.

Quick Note>> I'm listening to the Kinks as I write this.

Due to a quick rush of brit pop fever I had this morning I remembered the time when I lived back in London for a few months in the summer of 2005. I had only been to London once before and it was as a tourist, which is never the same. London's a unique place, though quite expensive, it's a great city to live in, for many reasons you could find in either a BBC documentary or by taking a trip. Hence, no details about that.
London has one thing though, that maybe and arguably, no other city in the world has. Hell, not even New York or for that matter none of its boroughs and districts in particular (LES, Williamsburg). London breathes music. From the 60's feel of Soho, Carnaby and Denmark St. to the years of Camden and today's Whitechapel. I had never experienced a city that experiences music the way London does. People might argue that Britain and London's music scene is not what it once was, taking that bands from other scenes (Williamsburg, Montreal...) and the scenes themselves have grown bigger. Maybe. But London still has a great scene, and even if it didn't, the bands from other scenes have to stop here. Because this is London town. This is the place to make it, at least when it comes to critics. British bands have always faced the huge deal of making it in America for commercial purposes. But the whole world wants to make it in the UK, because we regard them as the ultimate connoisseurs. Them Brits.

All this comes due to the fact that this morning I found out old news that came new to me. After 8 months of happening I found out that the old Victoria Theater has been demolished. Gone. Adios. In January. And I found out today.
I went to the Astoria once. And I cared more about the fact that I was going to the Astoria than listening to the band. It was a good gig, though. The Dears.
I felt it was important going to one of London's most important venues. If I wanted to experience London's music scene, the Astoria was the place to be.
Half legendary rock venue and half gay club, the Astoria saw many acts, old and new perform epic nights for intimate crowds. Is there any better way to enjoy music?
There isn't. What there is less of every day are venues like the Astoria. We've already seen CBGB go down, now this one. There will be more. The problem is that in many cases they're not being replaced by venues like their predecessors, but by newer, bigger venues. Arenas and the like.

As with the CBGB, the former Astoria owners have claimed a new location will open in the near future. The new location won't breathe the same air Hendrix exhaled no more than a new CBGB will feature original Ramones handwriting on its walls.
We're losing cathedrals of music by losing venues that have seen the Stones, Oasis and the Arctic Monkeys. Generations of music and diversity of genres represented. They all fit these places and these places are built from the spirit of music. They're not arenas that will host U2 one day and a sporting event the next one. (And even U2 played the Astoria). Those venues have no personality. The ones that do, are those you'll be willing to go to no matter the band, because the venue itself is worth it. Because it is alive.

Democracia Mediática.

Ayer vi a Letterman entrvistar a Barrack Obama. Es la primera vez que un presidente de Estados Unidos acude a un talk show. Y me pareció excelente que lo hiciera.
Podrán decir que fue para hablar de sus programas de Gobierno, ¿de qué más va a hablar un presidente, es su trabajo? Cuando un actor va a Letterman o con cualquier otro entrevistador de un late night va a hablar de su trabajo. Promueve su última película, habla de sus proyectos. Es parte del trabajo de un actor aparecer en este tipo de programas para darle promoción a su figura y a sus proyectos. Lo mismo para un político, incluso un Presidente.

Veámosle el otro lado a la tortilla y pongamos la misma situación en México. Dado que no tenemos a una personalidad de la categoría de Letterman en la barra del late night (perdón René Franco pero estás a años luz) y lo más cercano que hemos tenido ha sido Adal Ramones (perdón David Letterman por la comparación) digamos que Felipe Calderón decide ir a Otro Rollo (si estuviera al aire, estamos hablando de hipótesis) para hablar del paquete económico, del IVA o simplemente para ser entrevistado. La mañana siguiente tendríamos a miles de "inconformes", porque para inconformarnos somos muy buenos. Políticos, cientos diputados y decenas de senadores opinarían que cómo es posible que el Presidente salga en un programa haciendo proselitismo y seguramente echarían a andar algún tipo de sanción para el jefe o para quien sea, con tal de sancionar a alguien y "hacerse notar porque esto es un acto fascista". En fin, se armaría un zafarrancho. ¿Por qué no tenemos la madurez de aceptar que las figuras políticas también son gente, personalidades, incluso celebridades y que pueden ser tratados como tal por los medios de comunicación?
Me impresionó ver a Obama con esa soltura, naturalidad, espontaneidad. No estoy hablando de Obama el político, sino Obama como persona. Miren, a mi siempre me ha parecido que el manejo de Obama como marca ha sido impecable. El hecho de que saliera con Letterman ayer comportándose como la persona que seguramente es cuando se toma una cerveza con sus amigos (que ya quedó claro que hace) o la persona que es cuando desayuna con sus hijos, es una estrategia sumamente inteligente. Claro que ayuda que Obama tenga el carisma que tiene. Pero el tipo se ve natural, se ve honesto y eso aumenta su credibilidad. Eso es la política, es imagen, es percepción, es caerle bien a la gente.
Volteo ahora hacia México. Políticos sin chiste, sin naturalidad, cero espontáneos y con un lenguaje que parece lejano al de la gente normal, un dialecto rígido, falso y extraño. ¿Me sentaría a tomar una cerveza con Calderón, con Manlio o con Navarrete y qué dirían? ¿cómo hablarían? ¿contarían un chiste?

Me gustaría ver el día en el que esto sucediera en México. En parte por ver a políticos reales, pero más por ver que la libertad en los medios es posible. Que tenemos la madurez de escuchar propuestas y no que nos prohíban que los políticos digan cosas en programas de entretenimiento o en partidos de futbol porque piensan que no tenemos la inteligencia para discernir entre propaganda política y buena onda.

Pero como todo esto es una hipótesis, también es una hipótesis que vivamos en un país con verdadera expresión de ideales, en donde la gente se puede manifestar en todos lados cuando quiera y como quiera. También es una hipótesis que el uso mediático es una herramienta de la democracia.

¿Porqué los Beatles?

La semana pasada vivimos la euforia que implicó el lanzamiento del Rock Band de los Beatles. Seguramente ya todos conocen la existencia de este juego y el éxito comercial que ha tenido.
Pero eso no es lo que me llama la atención, o lo que probablemente pueda llamar la atención de muchos, sobre todo jóvenes, gente que nació después de la época beatlemaniatica, que nunca vivió en carne y hueso a los Beatles, y que pueden llegar a preguntarse, ¿porqué los Beatles?
¿Porqué después de tantos años siguen siendo el grupo más importante de la historia de la música? ¿Porqué siguen siendo un ícono popular tan fuerte 30 años después de haber grabado su último disco?¿Porqué habiendo tantos grupos desde ellos, sólo ellos pueden lanzar un videojuego y crear una revolución?
Por esto:

- Porque los Beatles inventaron la globalización.
- Porque no ha habido un fenómeno de cultura popular tan grande desde ellos.
- Porque las canciones que grabaron hace 40 años se escuchan como si las hubieran grabado ayer. Pon el White Album, Sgt. Peppers, Revolver o Abbey Road y escucha los detalles de producción, escucha canciones como I Am The Walrus. George Martin fue el primer verdadero productor musical de este planeta. El primero que le agregaba elementos a las canciones que hacían los grupos. Sin Martin no habría ni Rick Rubin, ni Nigel Godrich, ni siquiera Phil Spector.
- Porque gente de 60 años y de 15 escucha a los Beatles.
- Porque hicieron lo que nadie se atrevía a hacer. Dijeron lo que nadie quería decir.
- Porque el mundo de la música no hubiera sido lo mismo sin Revolver.
- Porque Abbey Road es el disco más progresivo de la historia sin ser progresivo y antes de que existiera el término progresivo.
- Porque nunca se han juntado cuatro genios (si, Ringo también) con semejante capacidad creativa y no matarse unos a otros, aunque sólo durara 11 años.
- Porque tu mamá te dice que le gustaban los Beatles y se refiere a cuando hacían canciones bonitas, tu papá te dice que le gustan los Beatles y se refiere a la etapa más psicodélica y a tus amigos les gustan por sus canciones más oscuras. Hay Beatles para todos.
- Porque nunca habrá otro John Lennon. Ni un McCartney. Ni Harrison. Ni Ringo.

Malinchismo no more.

Hoy, volví a creer en el rock mexicano.
¿Me estoy volviendo loco? ¿Soy el mismo que desde hace cinco años le dijo no al rock en español? ¿Que dijo que todas las bandas mexicanas eran pretenciosas? Tal vez lo eran. Por lo menos hoy soy capaz de aceptar que probablemente exageré al generalizar.
Pero hoy volví a creer. No en todos. Pero volví a creer.

He estado escuchando algunas grabaciones de bandas que apenas están empezando que han hecho unos amigos en un estudio en la Condesa. El otro día estuve ahí y me encontré a mucha gente de bandas que ya ustedes conocen bien y otros que están por conocerse. Estaban palomeando y pasando la tarde, había un bien ambiente de comunidad musical. Estuve escuchando las sesiones que han grabado en el estudio y hoy me pasaron un compilado.

Gracias Juan Manuel Torreblanca por la versión de Disorder de Joy Division. Aunque no es una canción de rock mexicano, es de los mejores covers que he oído en mi vida. Llevo escuchando a Joy Division toda la tarde después de eso.

Puede ser que estaba loco. O que no lo quería ver. Pero hay talento en México.
No en todos lados. Y no en todos. Pero ahí está.
Quizás muchas cosas sucedieron en los dos años que estuve fuera.

Miscellaneous Blogging

Or, nothing to blog about.

It's all been work, work, work lately.

I've seen no good movies (with the exception of catching Superbad on TV on Sunday night).

I've heard no new good music.

I really need to get around.

I just wanted to say I'm still here. And I'm still blogging.

PS. I fucking hate the term blogging.

¿Quién ganó?

Nadie.
Esa es la realidad que vive México estos días. Todos perdimos con las elecciones del día de ayer.

Perdimos porque menos de la mitad del electorado fue a votar.
Porque 6% de los que sí votaron lo hicieron en blanco o anularon el voto.
Porque la sociedad mexicana lanzó un claro mensaje de que la clase política y la gente están viviendo en dos lugares distintos y hablando dos lenguajes distintos.

Y es preocupante.

Es preocupante que a pesar de que la clase política se de cuenta de ello (es imposible no hacerlo) se hace de la vista gorda y festeja (como si hubiera mucho que festejar) sus "triunfos". Triunfos conseguidos a través de interesar a menos de la mitad del electorado. Es un triunfo falso, es un triunfo que es porque alguien tiene que ganar.

Pero no han triunfado. Todos hemos perdido.

Perdimos porque se vivió una jornada electoral cochina. Pareciera que el esfuerzo que se ha invertido en limpiar el proceso nunca hubiera existido. Vilvimos a las prácticas antiguas y denigrantes del acarreo, toma de casillas, perdida de boletas. Desde el caso penoso de Juanito dictado por AMLO en Iztapalapa hasta casos de toma de casillas por Flavio Sosa en Oaxaca. Parece que no hemos aprendido nada en este país. Y tampoco tenemos memoria.

Hoy, el PRI a vuelto a ser mayoría. Y aunque la alternancia es sana, es tiempo de alternar con algien más. ¿Pero quién? ¿La izquierda? Me encantaría ver una verdadera izquierda, bien preparada y seria en México. Pero el PRD no se puede gobernar ni a si mismo. Y el PAN está siendo castigado por una sociedad cansada.
Parece como si el tiempo se hubiera detenido y en los últimos diez años no hubiera pasado nada.
Qué triste se ve el panorama político en el futuro de México.
Pobre México, lo fuimos a poner en muy malas manos.

Don't take it from me. Take it from this guy.

One day, I took a shot at this subject and one of my teachers said I didn't know what the fuck I was talking about.
Well, someone big has finally made it very clear. This is what Jeff Goodby wrote last week from Cannes. Enjoy.

Jeff Goodby: 'We Are Becoming Irrelevant Award-Chasers'

By Jeff Goodby
Published: June 23, 2009

(AdAge.com) -- I call it the "cab test."

When you get into a taxi and tell the driver that you're in advertising, they often ask you whether you've done anything they might be familiar with.

Well, have you?

Ironically, the more awards you've been winning these days, the more likely the answer is "No."

It's fast becoming clear that the majority of things we're rewarding, as an industry, are either small or marginal efforts for legitimate clients, things we made for real clients that the clients seem not to have ever heard of, or out-and-out fakes.

Some of these projects are well-intentioned since, at the very least, they are meant to "inspire" us when we work on bigger, better-paying accounts. But without getting into whether this kind of activity is immoral or just plain chickenshit, I'd like to point out a graver toll it's taking on us all: It's making our business less famous. Less fun. Less public. Less about any of the reasons you probably got into it in the first place.

We've created a system that rewards work that is increasingly unknown to anyone outside the business. We have become connoisseurs of esoterica. And in the process, we're becoming more about us, and less about changing the world.

We are becoming irrelevant award-chasers.

Sure, some of the best things we make nowadays are internet experiences with necessarily specific, limited audiences -- that cab driver might not be expected to see them. But for the ones I'm talking about, the only intended audience is, well, us.

Ghost ads are symptom of the malaise
There are big, obvious signs of this syndrome everywhere, of course. The controversy in Dubai this year led to the rescinding of a big bag of awards and an Agency of the Year accolade (and may queer a host of end-of-the-year tallies). There was the apparently fake J.C. Penney commercial that won at Cannes last year. The list goes on.

But beyond the nakedly exposed fakes lies a gray area of questionable stuff that is perhaps even more dangerous. At the Andy Awards this year, we gave a gold to a lovely magazine spread campaign for an FM radio station -- but you had to wonder how such a station had the money to produce and run over 14 versions of such lush creations. And I have heard three different people from New York City -- parents who are in our business -- say they never got even a whiff of that widely-awarded school cell phone campaign.

As I say, this is not yet another complaint about ghost ads. It's a protest against the people who compliment things for being "well-entered." It's a warning that we are, in effect, making things that serve our own agency brands instead of serving our clients and making a difference in the minds of the world.

Making marketing famous again
I want us all to be famous again, outside the walls of our agencies. How can we accomplish this?

Well, I think we have to demand that awards judges take into account the sheer "famousness" of a piece of work when they make their determinations.

Not whether the stuff worked -- we are all quite good at making entry videos that make that case. (Judges parody these now as they watch them.) Not whether the stuff is new or ingenious -- yeah, we all want that. I'm talking about naked fame. Whether it's something you've ever heard of.

I don't think that it's wrong to have international judges -- people who are probably among the most media- and internet-savvy types on the planet -- mark things down a bit if they've never heard of them. For the good of our business. For the good of us all.

Bob Garfield recently complained that Cannes had become irrelevant because advertising forms had descended into "chaos." Giving free rein to the fame factor helps make such quibbling irrelevant. No one feels uncomfortable celebrating "Whopper Sacrifice" or "Mac vs. PC" or Coke's "Happiness Factory."

Think about it the next time you get in a cab. Think about it when you consider what will make you want to get up and go to work tomorrow.

Do it for the fun we'll all have.

The Greatest Performer Of Our Time.

That’s what Michael Jackson was.

This is probably one more of millions of blog entries, facebook status, twits that touch on the same angle on this day after the death of one of pop culture’s biggest icons. You may like or dislike him, but never ignore him. Michael Jackson re-invented pop music and gave the mainstream something of value and quality. For that we are eternally grateful for it shows us how quality and mainstream are not exclusive of each other.
He gave us well crafted, immaculately produced, well made pop music always joined by the hand of Quincy Jones. The result was some of the best pieces of popular music ever made.

Michael Jackson was the ultimate performer. He was it. Never again have we seen someone who could execute his art with such finesse and perfection. Every step, every move was perfectly calculated. To the mortal eye it happened in seconds and we saw something natural. But it took hours, years of rehearsal and discipline. He took the title of performing arts to the maximum. And did it like no one else.

About his troubled life I’d rather not talk about. I will always take what he left. The music. The art. The performances.

Many are good. Some are great. Few are perfect.
Some sing. Some dance. Almost nobody does both.
Some sing to terrible music. Some dance to good music.
Having done it all is impressive.

We’ve maybe seen many great performances in our lifetime. And when it comes to the music there’s preferences and taste. Maybe we like bands for their music, bands who are not necessarily good performers. Some genres think they don’t need great performances. But Michael Jackson taught us that writing, producing and recording music is one art and performing is another one. An art that we don’t look for anymore. Because few can accomplish greatness.
But we still love a great performance.
Music has lost a singer.
The world has lost the greatest performer it has seen in the last 30 years.

Sufragio efectivo. Y ya.

Sufragio efectivo, no reelección.

Este fue el argumento con el que se justificó una de las farsas más grandes, sino es que la más grande, de la historia de México: Su revolución.
La Revolución Mexicana pretendió quitar a un cacique para poner a otro(s). Pretendió que la gente luchara por tierras que aún no son suyas. Que la gente luchara por causas ajenas. Y resultó en una de las aberraciones políticas más grandes de la historia de la democracia: El PRI.

Ahora la Revolución está muy lejos. Así como sus ideales. Aunque muchos pretenden ser "revolucionarios" o "auténticos revolucionarios". Hemos escuchado ¨Partido Revolucionario Institucional" "De la Revolución Democrática" "Único Revolucionario". En fin, el término se ha prostituído.
Nos han vendido la revolución que nunca existió y todos quieren seguir siendo revolucionarios.

Ahora, sería tan fácil conformarnos con el sufragio efectivo. Lo de la no reelección es una necedad de nuestra historia y nuestra clase política porque "violaría los cimientos de la democracia Mexicana que están fundados en su Revolución". Fundamentos que claro está, se han violado millones de veces en otros temas.
La no reelección fue un fundamento que hizo sentido hace 100 años. Cuando existía un dictador en el poder, quien había sido reelecto varias veces. Pero ahora, no tiene sentido seguir aferrados a un sentimiento revolucionario rancio y cauduco.

Muchas de las democracias ejemplares del mundo aceptan la reelección, ya sea limitada o ilimitada. Como todo en la vida, esto tiene sus ventajas y desventajas. Pero lo que es verdad es que la reelección le permite a la gente "probar" a sus gobernantes y el poder de decisión recae completamente en ellos. Será la gente la que decide si está contenta y le concede al gobernante otro término.

Probablemente en México la reelección presidencial al estilo de Estados Unidos o España esté un poco lejos. Pero podemos empezar por proponer la reelección de puestos como Delegados, Presidentes Municipales y Legisladores.
Durante toda la historia democrática de México el incentivo del político ha sido el poder, y mantenerlo ha sido relativamente fácil. Ahí tenemos otra de las genialidades políticas de nuestro sistema, los candidatos plurinominales. Si tuvieramos reelección no cambiaría la ambición y antojo de poder de nuestros políticos, pero por lo menos los obligaría a realizar acciones concretas durantes sus mandatos para ganarse el voto de la gente y poder mantenerse en el poder.
Hoy en día, todo quien esté en un cargo de elección popular tiene una oportunidad. Y muchos de ellos sólo la utilizan para enriqucerse y empaparse de poder. Y no les importa mucho si cumplen o no, porque al finalizar nadie los va a juzgar y se irán a continuar con sus proyectos personales. Si tuvieran la opción de reelegirse tendrían que trabajar por el voto de la gente.

Espero que algún día México deje de ser un País que le concede todo a su clase política y empecemos a ser un País que le exige a su clase política, que la controle y que sepa manejar el poder de decisión que debería de ser más grande que el poder de gobernar.

El mayor insulto a la inteligencia colectiva (si es que la hay)

Mis últimas entradas a este blog han sido de política. Me encantaría escribir de música nueva (escribo esto mientros escucho a una nueva artista británica llamada Kid A, si, como el disco de Radiohead). O acerca de cine, pero la última película que vi fue Star Trek (todavía en Estados Unidos, hace como un mes). Por lo tanto voy a tener que hablar de los que todos hablan. O más bien, de lo que es inevitable hablar: Esta cochina campaña electoral que ocupa la mente y espacio físico de México.

Lo que más me molesta de las campañas no es que no sepamos hacer campañas, o que sean de pésima calidad. Tampoco es el hecho de que en realidad no sirven de nada. Sino que la manera de hacer campañas en México viene de la premisa de que todos en México somos estúpidos.
¿Porqué el Partido Verde no enseña a un solo candidato? ¿Quiénes son? Nadie sabe.
En vez de enseñarme a la persona que va a tomar las desiciones importantes del país, me enseñan a Raúl Araiza y a Maite Perroni. Porque parten de la premisa de que México es un país de telenovela, por lo tanto enseñemos a los personajes de telenovela para vender nuestro partido. Y peor aún, piensan que los mexicanos son tan ignorantes que van a votar por su partido "porque es el partido de los actores".
El simple hecho de usarlos como arma para manipular a la gente los descalifica totalmente como un partido con buenas intenciones y ganas de hacer las cosas bien.

Me muero de miedo en pensar que Enrique Peña puede ganar las elecciones del 2012 porque está galán y se va a casar con La Gaviota. Nuestro Kennedy mexicano. Ojo, no estoy diciendo que estoy a favor o en contra de Peña Nieto, sólo que me parece delicado pensar que lo pueda llegar a ser por estas situaciones. Y por supuesto que lo van a explotar. Acuérdense de mi cuando estemos bombardeados por esa campaña.

Luego tenemos al PRD, PT, PRI, PAN, et al. Que todos hacen campañas igual de malas, chafas y de contenido pobre que no nos dice una de dos cosas: a) algo nuevo y b) algo relevante.
Ayer decía AMLO en un spot que la crisis económica nació en el 82. Lo decía tirándole al PRI y al PAN y a todos los que no son él (que por consecuencia también incluye a todos los del PRD, PT, y demás, porque en ese entonces todos pertenecían al PRI y al PAN, incluyendo al mismo López Obrador). Pero no sólo eso, sino que lo dice en un tono como si estuviera descubriendo el hilo negro, somo si fuera algo que nadie sabía. Es obvio, todo mundo sabe que el País ha vivido una constante crisis desde la década de los 80. Cómo es posible que López Obrador pueda adueñarse de una obviedad. Está jugando al comentarista de futból, que repite lo que ya estamos viendo. Pero lo dice con un tono mesiánico, somo si la noción de saber el hecho nos va a sacar del hoyo.

Las épocas de campaña son deprimentes. Los partidos dan patadas de ahogados para que los pele una sociedad que está harta de ellos. Juegan su juego sucio mientras los demás los contemplamos de lejos, como cuando ves una pelea callejera y te pegas a la pared. Estamos ausentes en su campaña, propuesta y gobierno. Siguen gastando dinero en medios ineficientes de promoción que no sólo no le van a hacer ningún bien al País sino que le están haciendo un gran daño.

El puesto de trabajo más difícil en México.

¿El Presidente de la República?
No. Si por lo menos a la mitad del País realmente le interesara la política y su rumbo, el señor Presidente pudiera estar considerado para tener la chamba más dura.
Pero no lo es.
Tampoco es ser Jefe de Aduanas. Ni siquiera el lider de la guerra en contra del narcotráfico, si acaso ese sería el más peligroso.

El trabajo más difícil en este país es ser entrenador de la selección nacional.

Porque en este país los medios se inventaron para hablar de futbol.
Porque en este país todos somos "expertos" en futbol.
Porque siempre estabamos mejor con el anterior.
Porque lo juzgamos como si él metiera, fallara o parara los goles.
Porque al final de cuentas él tiene la culpa de la ineptitud de 22 personas.
Porque en este país nos encanta apuntar el dedo.
Porque si.
Porque ni Hugo pudo.
Porque es extranjero.
Porque es Mexicano.
Porque no hizo los cambios.
Porque hizo los cambios.
Porque no habla español.

Porque pase lo que pase, y esté quien esté, nunca vamos a estar a gusto con nadie.
Porque así somos los mexicanos.

La realidad.

El narco no nació ayer.
Ni el sexenio pasado.
Ni el anterior.

No es para que los partidos en las actuales elecciones se estén echando la bolita para ver quién tiene la culpa. Ni es para que por la misma razón, nadie quiera arreglar el problema.

No es para que un partido o el Gobierno se adjudique la lucha. Pero si es para que los demás que no lo están haciendo despierten y apoyen a quien lo esté.

El problema con el que vivimos actualmente tiene que ver con años de impunidad, de gobiernos y gobernantes que se hicieron de la vista gorda. De no querer arreglar un problema chico, que se hizo grande, y se hizo grande, hasta que terminó por ser más grande de nuestra capacidad de gobernar y poner orden.
Cómo poner fin a un problema que está dentro del sistema de gobierno y de imposición de la ley. Un problema que hace que un cuerpo de policía municipal se enfrente a la policía estatal y federal.
Los narcos están riendo.
Mientras el gobierno y la policía exhiben su ineptitud.
Pobre México. Estamos en manos de pendejos.

Por donde veo, no hay nadie que tenga la autoridad, el liderazgo, ya no digamos las ganas, de sacarnos del hoyo. Las intenciones de todos los candidatos a legislaturas y delegaciones son cuestionables. No importa otra cosa que ganar. ¿Ganar para qué? ¿Para qué quieren ganar? ¿Para decir que ganaron? De eso se trata, de ganar.
Ellos ganan. Nosotros perdemos. Con quien sea perdemos.
Es triste. Pero es la realidad.

Bands that suck.

And unfortunately people think they don’t.

Every decade has its share of shit. And most of the bands that I’ll mention in this entry were born in the 90’s, and we still remember them because they’re fresh in our minds (shiver). I have to say it’s not their fault, well, not entirely their fault. People who like them or think these bands are even remotely close to being good have to be blamed as well. Sadly, decades are remembered for bad bands. A lot of people have the perception of the 80’s being the worst decade for music, that it was full of bad pop acts and one hit wonders. Well, ever heard of Punk? Or New Wave? Brit Pop? Have you ever stopped to realize that the bands that you fancy today are mainly influenced by bands that were born in the 80’s? Yes, the 80’s had a lot of crap in the mainstream popular side, but it had genius in the other, that by the way was often popular as well.
Now let’s move forward to the 90’s. Turns out grunge was a double-sided act. The good side is conformed by the original grunge bands, you may or may not like grunge but you can’t ignore their relevance in musical history. Hate the game, not the players. The evil side of grunge was its legacy. It left us an outstanding number of really bad bands all wanting to be Nirvana, Kurt, Pearl Jam and Eddie. And so the 90’s were marked by (again) bad pop, a pseudo-alternative genre to triumphantly culminate with Nü Metal (chill). Again, most people missed the scene. The 90’s are awesome, even though we’ve been trying too hard to erase them from our memories. The famous indie term was originally coined in the 80’s but popularized in the 90’s, so was college rock. The 90’s went on to produce musical geniuses that were discovered by hipsters early this decade.
With no further ado, here is the list of the bands that suck and people think they don’t.

Creed.
And anything that comes close to sounding like Pearl Jam or imitate Eddie Vedder’s voice in any form.
Telltale sign of sucking: Popularizing Christian rock.

Live.
Telltale sign of sucking: Just the fact of being labeled “alt rock” is bad enough for them and any other band like them.

Counting Crows.
A professor I had in College, who by the way was a musical connoisseur, adored the Counting Crows and spoke of them as the unappreciated genius act of 90’s American music. I looked for something that might hint to that in their music and never found it.
Telltale sign of sucking: Everything that’s not Colorblind or Round Here. And every time someone sings Mr. Jones at a karaoke bar.

Korn.
There’s so many wrong things with Korn I don’t even know where to begin. The fact that they created Nü metal might not be worse than creating a long line of “poser” bands that pretended to be “hardcore” and then dated Britney Spears (which with time turned out to be pretty hardcore.)
Telltale sign of sucking: They spawned bands like Limp Bizkit and Linkin’ Park, and we can thank them for Nü Metal.

Limp Bizkit.
Tell-tale of sucking: See “Korn”

Linkin Park.
Telltale sign of sucking: See “Limp Bizkit”

Sum 41, Blink 182… and everything that sounds like them. And they all sound the same.
This is the part to say “who the fuck invented the term alternative?” Whoever tried to find a place in the world for bands like these.
Telltale sign of sucking: They make a joke out of their music and then they sound so cheesy when they want to go serious. If you’re going to make a joke be like Ween.

Bon Jovi.
Do you remember singing “Blood on Blood” from the top of your lungs when you were young? I do. Wasn’t it cool? No, it never was. But it felt like it.
Bon Jovi is the quintessential “I thought they were good back then” band. It’s like a robber entering your house at night, he opens the window silently and then triggers the alarm when he’s about to take your TV. Sadly, some people don’t have good alarm sytems and Bon Jovi has even stolen their refrigerator.
Telltale sign of sucking: The creation and later exploitation of the “rock-mantic ballad”, i.e. “Bed of Roses”, “I’ll be there for you”, “Always” and the list can go on.

My Chemical Romance / The Offspring.
Too much attitude, very little to offer. Back in the day I thought of the Offspring when I thought of Green Day. They were contemporaries and maybe, maybe shared some of their sound. But I was so wrong (thankfully), Green Day turned out to be good, The Offspring turned out to be a bad joke. My Chemical Romance shares the same problem, we can’t take music so generic seriously.

Spin Doctors.
No comments.
Telltale sign of sucking: Wrote “Two Princess”

Hootie and The Blowfish.
I was shocked to learn that Darius Rucker (former lead vocal of Hootie. Hell, he is Hootie) is now at the top of the country charts. HATB is the perfect example of a band that was so bad it could not even be redeemed by its commercial success.
Telltale sign of sucking: Rucker’s push-cause-I’m-running-out-of-breath singing style. And he’s consequential career in country music. Yuck.

Matchbox 20, Barenaked Ladies, Lifehouse, Goo Goo Dolls.
Is this Creed? No. Exactly.
Thanks to these bands the 90’s can be seen as darker than Medieval ages. They had no contribution to music whatsoever. They made lame songs with lame lyrics played by lame people to lame people. God, the 90’s could have been so lame. Well, they were to a lot of people.
Telltale sign of sucking: You can’t tell from one band and the other.

Bonus mention: Phil Collins (and for that purpose Genenis post Peter Gabriel). Phil Collins playing the drums. Phil Collins singing. Phil Collins acting.

The most obnoxious people in TV.

There's two types of annoying advertising: There's the big leagues, with the likes of Cash for Gold or GoDaddy with beyond-annoying Super Bowl appearances, and then there's the everyday stuff, companies that can afford to buy space in the shows we watch. This is prime time garbage. Prime shit.



The woman from the rollover minutes.
Bad concept + Bad acting = An obnoxious mom who will remind everyone who had an obnoxious mom about their obnoxious mom.




The yelling bitch from Progressive.
How much of this can you take? I go for mute when I see the blue and white screen on. Her voice has the power of projecting what hell must be like.




The guy from the Verizon network.
Who the fuck is he? No. Seriously.




All the people who have ever appeared singing "5 dollar footlong" on Subway ads.



Enough said.


John Schnatter (Papa Johns' CEO.)
It's so archaic to think that having the company's CEO will add either value or credibility to your message. It's something that only local businesses that don't know better do (for those of you living in Richmond I can reference the guy who sells cars in a gown.) But a nationwide pizza company could be a bit more engaging than having this guy say "Better ingredients. Better pizza. Papa Johns" at the end of every commercial.




The money you could be saving with Geico.
OK, we get it, really, we get the jokes. But do you have to shove it up our asses every 10 minutes and run the ads back to back? We put up with the over exploited cavemen (thankfully I never saw the show), then with the Gecko (and the asshole that followed him around) and now the money with plastic eyes. Bonus points for having heard the radio ads.




The asshole from Shamwow.
If we owe anything to Billy Mays and Tony Little is enabling assholes like this to pollute our screens everyday. Vincent, so I learned his name is, has even gone as far as beating the hell out of a prostitute (true story) and became a scandal. If his sad TV act is not enough to get him off the air, this should.




BONUS: The asshole from Shamwhow, Spanish version. (AKA: El pendejo de Shamwow)

Oh Shit.

Thanks to a twitter post from my friend Joey Camire (you can read his and other Brandcenter student blog posts at www.blommit.com) I learned that this kid named Ben is the most subscribed-to person in Youtube.
Before I say anything else, please take a look (and then tell me how long you lasted.)



Now, this touches on a couple of subject I recently wrote about. The one being the contemporary Warholian 15 minutes of fame and how these days they refer to Youtube and not necessarily to TV and mainstream media. Point proven.
The second one was about this morning's post, which was about great TV. And the video shown above is discouraging me from thinking that TV was headed towards a good direction. Well, I overlooked a small detail, TV. And the fact that the latter is now widely watched through the Internet, and there's plenty of user generated content to compete with the traditional content.

This kid, who I estimate has to be no older than 16 years old has produces videos that are sometimes watched by as much as a million people. That's scary. I love the fact that anyone can have access to a million people, it's the world we live in, the media democracy. But, is this what other 15 year olds are watching. And maybe you're thinking "yes, as opposed to be watching other crap-MTV shows or bad reality TV" and maybe you're right, it is after all a vicious circle, viewers watch what's out there.
Is there a way to make everyone watch the shows that are truly interesting and worth watching? I don't think so. No more than we can convince people that this type of music is better than another, or forms of literature, or films. It's a matter of taste. It's the eternal mainstream VS quality issue (which I personally think that it's sometimes bullshit because they're not mutually exclusive, at least not all the time.)
Yes, it sucks. No, there's no answer as to why the world functions the way it does. It's just a matter of taste. You have to take whatever you think is good, and I truly hope you don't think this way of using YouTube is.

Great TV.

There's good TV and great TV.
Thankfully, we're living in times where great TV is more common. TV has evolved well as a media. Or maybe it's the fact that it has grown to such diversity that we don't necessarily have to look at shit anymore. Although sometimes it's hard to escape it.
Either way, the time and money spent on making good quality TV is better nowadays than it was say 20 years ago. More good actors from films are interested in venturing into TV, when some years back it meant your career was over.

Good TV is the one that entertains. The one that's not bad in content, but it's not exceptional either, but above all it has the ability to not piss anyone off. But greatness, that's different thing. Great TV is the one so realistic that you fell you'll run into the characters on the street. Like if you're eating at a hip LA restaurant and you see Ari Gold or any of the Entourage crowd. Or run into the guys from The Wire in Baltimore.

About The Wire, I know I'm a bit late to the prom on this one but it might be one of, if not the greatest show I have ever seen in my life. It might not be my favorite. But when it comes to building a smart story, with great characters and performances, well done and produced and definitely one of the smartest critiques to the system and governance I have ever see in any form of entertainment, The Wire has to be my pick.
It might just be the standard of great TV. And it's not for everyone. Greatness never is.
It's the kind of show that will make you see things that maybe you don't want to see. That will make you think when maybe you seek TV not to think.
TV has evolved to a medium that used to be the "idiot box" to shows that are pushing the envelope and are trying to be smart and entertaining at the same time. It can be done. And even when they will not find instant commercial succes, this is becoming a trend. There's obviously people to thanks for it, and they're called HBO.

If you haven't seen The Wire, do it. It will make you see a TV you've never seen. Don't expect a 24-like show, where Jack Baure saves the world over and over again. Expect to see a real portrayal of an American city and the people in both sides of the law, where you don't always tell who are the good guys and the bad guys.

The Fatalists.

Hard to believe, but there's people and media companies who insist on comparing the swine flu outbreak with the one in 1918, also dubbed "the Spanish flu." History tells us that nearly 20 million people lost their lives back then, with a flu very similar to today's. They also say that it began in the late spring and then came back in the fall, when it was much more devastating.

Sources and reports are vague. I've seen the numbers from the 1918 flu dance from 20 million to, according to a CNN article I just read, 50 million (they preceded it with the word conservatively.)
Again, people just trying to be alarmist and scare the shit out of others.

Context. Facts.
Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928.
Though the study of antibiotics started in the 1880's, they were not widely used until the late 1930's.

Two medical components that are not only basic factors for treatment but rather common nowadays did not exist back when the Spanish flu attacked.
It would be outrageous to suggest that the world today is as vulnerable as it was 90 years ago. I am not disregarding the fact that this is a serious situation, but in no way we can make this kind of comparison.
Once again, the problem of disinformation is attacking the media.

Infonoia

Did information made us paranoid? Or paranoia made us informed?

It's hard to run away from information in the world we live in. Even if you don't want to be informed there's the TV with 24/7 news channels, there's your computer with all the information in the world. It's tempting not to be seeking information every 30 minutes. Especially when there's something like the swine flu we have going around the world today.

Where's the media's responsibility? Naturally, the first and foremost principal of journalism is to stick to the truth. But, where does the truth and the necessity to inform every step become too much? Where is the line? Where does the responsibility of avoiding collective panic start? And where do we identify a point where we have to be extremely careful to keep everything in context?

The latter is the main issue when it comes to information that can cause panic. And it's not always the media's fault. Sometimes we only listen or read the headline, or we drop an article after the 1st paragraph. That's why it's imperative that journalists be extremely attentive to how they write their headlines. A lot of them want to write the shocky kind because "it will attract more readers." But it will also scare more readers, because a lot of people will stop reading and keep only the information included in the lead.
I read an article in one of Mexico's most prestigious newspapers yesterday, the headline read: "Alarm on rising swine flu cases in Canada." The second paragraph went on to explain how all of the cases mentioned were found benign and none of the patients were in grave danger. There's an obvious disconnect between the headline and the rest of the text. This is irresponsible journalism.

The inspiration to write about this comes from the swine flu outbreak in my country. I want to say that I'm really sad to know that my hometown is going through rough times. That people are not leaving their houses, that the streets are empty, people scared, sick and some dying.
The World Health Organization has just raised the alert level to 5, one before this is declared a pandemic. These are reasons for people to be nervous and can obviously cause paranoia. But we also have to reason and use the information that has been given to us to understand what exactly is going on. The virus itself is treatable, so that tells us that we should seek attention when the 1st symptoms show. The cause for international concern comes from the fact that it's an unknown strain of the virus, which may even go away by the end of the flu season (reports show that it's likely to come back for the winter when, hopefully, a vaccine will be available.) It's more likely to attack people with weak immune systems, so stay healthy and take your vitamins. Be extra cautious when it comes to hygiene, wash hands a lot, this can protect you up to 99% against the virus and other germs. And if you do get sick go see a doctor, there's thousands of flu cases every year and not to minimize the impact of this specific one, but the cases and deaths are still proportionally small.

And the main recommendation is not to panic, be well informed (but not over-informed) and for the media, keep in mind that the collective conscience lies in your hands. Don't be alarmist but useful and helpful.

Cinismo.

La Real Academia de la Lengua Española lo define como:

1. m. Desvergüenza en el mentir o en la defensa y práctica de acciones o doctrinas vituperables.
2. m. Impudencia, obscenidad descarada.

Para definir a ciertos políticos mexicanos a mi me gusta más la segunda.
De acuerdo a una nota publicada esta tarde en la página de Internet del periódico Reforma algunos senadores como Beltrones, Monreal y otros destacados perredistas no están de acuerdo con la manera que el Gobierno Federal ha manejado la crisis de la influenza.
Carajo. No puede ser.
Es una "obscenidad descarada" el querer tomar una situación tan delicada como ésta para hacer una zancadilla política. Acuérdense que estamos en año electoral.
Por fin tenemos al Gobierno Federal y del DF colaborando intensamente, un trabajo que han aplaudido autoridades de otros países y de la OMS. Pero eso no les basta a esta bola de animales.
Lo único que les interesa es hacer ruido. Porque lo que hacen no es otra cosa. No ayudan en nada, no proponen nada, sólo hacen ruido.
Hace falta gente que se una a la lucha, sin importar de quién y qué partido pertenezcan aquellos que ya están luchando. Que se pongan a trabajar. Y que dejen de ser gente que sólo se dedica a apuntar el dedito cómodamente aposentados en sus curules.
Es el colmo.
Senadores, diputados y integrantes ilustres de la clase política mexicana: Nos importan madres sus elecciones y sus problemas, grilla, en este momento. Lo único que queremos es que la gente esté sana, que paren los contagios y las complicaciones y que el País regrese a su ritmo normal. Nos conviene a todos. A nosotros. Y a ustedes.
Pónganse a trabajar y dejen las trampas políticas chafas y sucias para cuando no haya gente sufriendo en este País. Que para términos prácticos es nunca.

Kinko's 2:35 AM.

There's only two customers left. I'm one of them.
Business is slow at this time of the night, but even then the guy helping me is stressed.
He's loosing his patience as I take my time to pick the paper I want. We copywriters don't know a lot about this and it makes me nervous that I will make the wrong decision.
He works at an incredible speed. And it's nearly 3 AM. It's like the guy worked the night shift at an ER in Baltimore.
But it's Kinko's. Richmond's West End.
Across the street from a dark and closed Target and Barnes & Noble.
The other customer in the store is beside me.
He has printed some sort of political campaign posters that show him running for Congress.
He then proceeds to ask the Kinko's employee helping him if she thinks the poster is any good.
She describes it as "very eye-catching."
I start thinking what the world be like if every elected official took campaign advice from random people.
The guy helping me refuses to print my DVD labels.
Mrs. "eye-catching" is eager.
Kinko's (now officially FedEx Office) is deserted.
I'm exhausted.
I'll go to bed now.

YouTube killed the TV star.

Fame, according to Andy Warhol everybody will have their 15 minutes. And he didn't live to see YouTube. I really wonder what Warhol would have said about it. What most people don't know is that the original quote was preceded by the words "in the future." We are living Warhol's future.

It would be useless for me to enlist all the cases of how people are more famous by scoring a YouTube clip than by working for years to make it to the small or big screens. It was eye-opening for me though while watching Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist the other night (BTW, don't even bother watching the film.) In one of the numerous scenes happening in badly depicted hipster venues of the Lower East Side, Michael Cera's character notices his date for the night is very well connected since everybody greets her. Twenty years ago Michael Cera would have asked her if she was on TV, or if she had made it to MTV or something. But no, in 2008 (when the movie was originally relseased) Michael Cera asks "are you in YouTube or something?"

This is the world we live in. The YouTube world. The democratization of entertainment and content. It's not new. But it's a tricky thing that has to be played smart. Ask Domino's "buggy boys" how their joke turned out. It's Warhol's time to laugh at everybody getting their 15 minutes. If we will all get them this is when we'll do. How will you be spending them?

Yes I watched Gossip Girl tonight. So what.

But panic not, since this post is not about the lives of fictional 17-year-old WASP Upper East Siders who behave, talk and think like 3o year olds.
It's just a segway to get into the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs album. Which I really liked. A mix between Siouxie (who Karen O has always emulated) and Blondie. That's what I like about the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, every album they've made has been so different from the other, and still good. The 1st one being post-punk, the 2nd one more acoustic and then this one being an homage to new wave.
But, parade your single in Gossip Girl? Really?
I've never had a problem with popular TV shows taking their soundtrack from good bands. The OC did it, Gossip Girl is doing it and many other shows have done it. I actually think it's great that more people out there are getting some good music from their TV shows. Now, that's one thing, there's a music supervisor, they pick your track, pay royalties, done.
At the end of today's episode the Yeah Yeah Yeah's newest single was playing in the back, and instead of cutting to titles we got to see a mini-ad telling us the music was provided by the mentioned band and the album was available. This is the Yeah Yeah Yeah's we're talking about. Not the Jonas Brothers. It's supposed to be punk. Not teen pop.

If bands are brands and you have to be careful what you surround your brand with, because it becomes part of it, this is definitely something to look out for.

This is only another sign that the term indie was not only manufactured but in fact has not existed in 20 years.

Sven.

Lo de ayer ya ni lo comentamos. 3-1 contra Honduras. Qué pena.

Pero me da más pena es que en México seguimos pensando que el técnico siempre tiene la culpa de lo mal que juega la selección. Vivimos en un engaño. ¿Nunca se han preguntado que puede ser culpa de un sistema que práctica la FMF y la prensa deportiva en México? Ésta última, que se dedica a inflar a jugadores mediocres. Y los equipos que dedican a pagarle demasiado a jugadores mediocres.

El resultado de un sistema mediocre es un equipo mediocre.

Nery Castillo es el ejemplo perfecto de un jugador que no se merece llevar la camiseta de la selección. Nunca estuve de acuerdo con lo que hacía Hugo cuando dirigía al Tri, pero ahora entiendo porqué estuvo peleado tanto tiempo con Nery y le costó tanto trabajo llamarlo. Hugo será muchas cosas, pero también es una persona que cree, practica y exige disciplina, y Nery no la tiene. Ayer entró en el segundo tiempo a cometer faltas, a pelearse con los Hondureños y hasta con sus propios compañeros. No pasa el balón a tiempo, todo lo quiere hacer solo. Este tipo no se merece la verde.
Así como Nery, muchos jugadores mexicanos viven en el conformismo y en la mediocridad porque al pensar que en México son héroes, están calificados para medirse ante cualquiera a nivel internacional. El caso de Omar Bravo, que llegó a España a hacer el ridículo para que luego lo regresaran con laureles a México, y seguramente más caro. Rafa Márquez, el Gran Capitán, que pierde la cabeza en los juegos más importantes. Leandro, que nadie sabe qué hace en la selección.
México ha mejorado en la exportación de jugadores. Márquez, Giovanni, Salcido y Vela son sólo algunos. Pero nos falta. Nos falta que nuestros jugadores se midan con equipos competitivos a nivel de liga, que "sufran" un poco y se vayan ganando un sueldo cada vez más alto.
Francia no ganó la copa del mundo hasta que logró tener un equipo lleno de jugadores que eran estrellas en las ligas más importantes de Europa (España, Italia, Inglaterra). ¿Cuánto más vamos a esperar para aprender la lección?

Aguirre.

Aguirre me gusta, siempre he dicho que la selección nunca ha vuelto a jugar el futbol que jugó con él. Tal vez era el equipo o las circunstancias. Pero el caso es que el entrenador importa. Importa la estrategia e importa la mentalidad. Ha quienes dicen que México acaba de dejar ir a uno de los diez mejores entrenadores el mundo (Sven), pero tal vez eso sea un hecho subjetivo de pensar que no todos los entrenadores están hechos para todos los equipos.
Aguirre es mexicano, ha lidiado con la selección mexicana, ha lididado con equipos mexicanos, sabe manejar al futbolista mexicano y viene de tener una carrera en España que seguramente lo ha hecho un mejor técnico. Esperemos que el Vasco cumpla.

The best time for creativity.

A few days ago, one of our professors surprisingly stated that working in advertising is not exciting enough to grab you like it did to him back in the day. I brutally disagree. I think (although it may be a cliché) that this is the most exciting time to work in anything that involves ideas and communication. Call it advertising, branding, content, production, entertainment, digital engagement. Whatever. With the economy being what it is and "consumers" loosing faith in spending, the game just turns more interesting; we have to be smarter about how much we spend in advertising and communications, but we also have tools we didn't have before that enhance messages that go directly to the people we're trying to reach. We have realized that it's not only advertising (what you say) that affects a brand, but the way it behaves (what you do) is as important. Packaging, logos, store displays, retail architecture and design, web design, events, these are all things that are open for creative companies to concept around with. Twenty years ago you made an ad and put it on TV or on a national magazine to reach a small percentage of people inside a much bigger audience. Millions of dollars where unnecesarily spent trying to reach people by the frequency system. Today, nobody wants to spend that much, so we carefully choose the media that's most adequate for the idea and the brand, we make the media part of our communication, it plays a bigger role. So we don't create headlines or TV ads, we create ideas that live anyhwere. Like John Hegarty said when he was here last year: "The best media is the one between someones ears." And today's world enables the use of the mind so much better. You can't get away with writing a great TV ad and walking away like a super-hero anymore. Maybe you'll get an award for it, but you will do a better job when you make that TV ad make sense inside a bigger integrated idea.
It's a more interesting world, more complex, more options, with more chaos and less money. This is the perfect place for a creative mind to work in. I read in Time magazine this morning an interesting article about how with the end of ER this week we close an era in entertainment when big networks with big shows, big ratings and big money ruled. But it opens a door to smaller shows in smaller networks and cable, and this means better quality and filtered content, where your TV options are not only the big names anymore but you have the option of choosing your entertainment by what interests you. Proof of this is not only TiVo, cable and digital TV, but websites like Hulu.
This is the world we are living in today, and it's an exciting time to come up with great ideas for everything that can touch people's hearts and minds. So yes, this is something you can be passionate about.

Hola, hablo español.

Después de haber vivido casi dos años fuera de México y haber escrito este blog completamente en inglés, y después de tomar la decisión de que a partir de este verano me convertiré una vez más en residente de la Gran Ciudad de México, este espacio se convertirá en uno bilingüe. Todavía habrá posts en inglés pero empezaré a incorporar algunos en español y con temas más mexicanos (si, la política es uno de esos temas, ¿qué chiste tendría hablar de México si no hablas de su chiste más grande?)

Por lo pronto, ojalá y gane la selección mañana.

Why CD's matter(ed)

Last Sunday I heard a Depeche Mode song I hadn't heard in years. It was Personal Jesus. Yeah, I know, the typical Depeche Mode song, but nonetheless a good one.
The song triggered a trip down my memories to remember how I got really into the band after buying a CD during a trip to Phoenix when I was about 15 years old (I'm talking about a compilation, the original song was included in "Violator", 1990.)
It got me thinking on how the CD culture, or the album culture, something we are losing if not lost already, was an enhancer of people appreciating and knowing about music. I wonder if generations who start getting into music today will be as musically savvy as past, since they always seem to get a surface glance at bands by downloading only the songs they like and missing out on the album experience.
It got me thinking about how when I listened to the song I instantly thought about that Phoenix trip. Maybe I can't remember when I and where I bought ever album I'd ever bought in my life, but there's not a chance that I could remember at least when I downloaded a certain song.
It got me thinking about how because I bought that album I got into the band and went back and bought their past albums.
I am guilty. Up to this point I have gone mostly digital. I uploaded a large part of my musical collection to my computer and that is now my musical source. But I have to say, the album experience was an essential part of my musical education. And it's something that we cannot afford to loose.

Curious Enough.

I finally went to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Maybe a coincidence, that same morning I had a breakfast conversation with a friend about how it's fine for some movies to just entertain. Not all of them have to be extremely artistic and not all of them have to be groundbreaking. Some of them can just entertain. Which is the first thing any movie should do anyway.

In that spirit I went to see Benjamin Button, and I enjoyed it. There's an interesting story (about a man living life from old to young) and there's good acting. Some might say it's a bit long, I agree. But the movie keeps the viewer engaged for the most part.

SPOILER ALERT- If you have not seen the movie, stop reading.

Now there's one thing that the movie is missing. A good ending. Or a better one. It actually has that better ending embedded in the film, except that it's not the ending.
Generally a good ending is based on the fact that the pinnacle of the movie has just happened. After that all you need is a resolution, and that can be as quick as Casablanca or as long as The Return of the King.
I think the ending in this film came when the daughter is reading the postcards Benjamin sent after he left. That was the most emotional part of the film. She's reading the birthday cards and you're seeing the images of him traveling around the world. A good resolution after that could have been when he visits Daisy for the last time, narrated by Daisy herself and finally ending with the fact that they found a boys back pack with a book that had her name on it. And we never see him as a little boy. Actually, that's when the movie lost me, those last 10 minutes of seeing him go younger. We know that, we know he's going to die as a baby, we might as well not seen that and end the movie at the pinnacle. With the boy sequences the audience cools down from that emotional moment. You can even feel it inside the movie theater, the way people react by the end and the feeling in the ambient is not the same as when that emotional moment happens.
A good ending is hard to get, and most movies usually have it in there. It's all about editing or knowing when's a good time to stop.

What I learned from Super Bowl 43.

There's a funny thing about the Super Bowl, it's the moment in which everybody seems to like and care about advertising. Not only that, but it's the moment in which everyone turns into an ad critic.
I've never been a die-hard football fan, I used to follow football much more about 8 years ago, but I still watch the Super Bowl every year. The only difference now is that I actually get to see the "famous" commercials, since back in Mexico we don't get to see the same commercials.
This year I went to a Super Bowl party. But it was a non-ad people Super Bowl party, which I thought could be interesting. It was. I could see first-hand how people react to ads. Real people, real ads. No over-analyzing, no judging, no awards, just reactions that take a second, gut reactions, which I think are the ones that count the most.
This is a dangerous thing, to see what people really like, and maybe even disappointing. You realize that they don't like the same stuff ad-people like, and they like the stuff that we would right away condemn.
Last year, the Brandcenter brought the people from the USA Today Ad Meter to speak, we all realized (and they made it clear too) that comedy is mostly what works at a Super Bowl. And animals seem to work pretty good too. Maybe it's the Super Bowl's environment (friends, TV, beer, guacamole) that makes people pay more attention and hence react better to funny stuff. We would say, "it's the same kick in the groin joke", and it is, but funny enough the Ad Meter was topped by an ad featuring, yes, a groin joke, which by the way was consumer generated. Now, I don't really want to get into the whole "shit, consumer generated advertising is better than..." because it's a quick judgement and even the idea of having a contest to make consumer generated ads to go into the Super Bowl came from an agency.
It reminds me of that FedEx commercial that listed the top 10 things you need to have in a Super Bowl commercial, of course kick in the groin and animals where there (bonus points for dancing animals.)
Everyday we break our heads thinking how to make things different, and every time we see something like the stuff that people like in Super Bowl ads we say it's all been done before and that no one wants to see it again. But in the end we find out that people do want to see it again. And here lies a dilemma, and I don't think we should keep doing the same stuff over and over, but then you realize what people like and... well, are we speaking the same language?


Here's that FedEx commercial.