photo « Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

photo

cycling / photo / Rowan / video / Wednesday — Comments Off
23
Apr 25

Advertising and bikes, but not bike ads

In my international media class today, we talked about some facets of advertising. I had them read a few things, and a few students did the readings. And I had them watch a few videos, because, believe it or not, videos about how advertising works will always elicit some conversation.

Here’s one of the videos.

They really got into the Coke video. I enjoyed seeing the Coca-Cola products from other parts of the world.

And I also shared this video with them, which discusses women in advertising. Jean Kilbourne has been a model, an author, a filmmaker and an activist. And this is one of her now classic pieces where she dissects the ideals of beauty. Or starts to. You can’t get into all of it in a single 7-minute clip. In retrospect, I should have made this a full day’s worth of class.

The takeaway I leave them with is that there is an argument to me made that advertising is a form of journalism, or at least a glimpse of the contemporary record keeping of any given time. Kilbourne talks about how ads sell values, they sell images and concepts and, thus, normalcy. Ads are who we are. We can also say that attitudes in culture inform our ads.

More and more, I realize I should be turning this in to a culture class.

And then I sent them away with the happy thought that Kilbourne points out that there are some attitudes we need to get away from in this current portrayal of advertising (which had been de rigueur for decades before that production, and has remained so in the decades since) because “What’s at stake for all of us is our ability to have authentic and freely chosen lives, nothing less.

Next week they’ll be reading and talking about hijab advertisements, the economic globalization of ads, fragmentation and, of course, Stanley Cups.

Next week is our last week of class, somehow.

I’m only just now starting to get to know these people.

This evening I had enough daylight for a 26-mile ride. I reversed one of my usual courses, heading through one small town to the river, and then over into a neighboring city. Then I fought six miles of winds through woods and subdivisions, and then took a turn through the farms. Horses were the theme today.

I also went past the fields now turning green, most of the work still being done below the soil, and also past the vineyards. And more horses.

On this road, there is a bike lane, and I am obliged to ride in a bike lane when there is a lane. Usually this is fine, but they come with their own challenges.

This wash out will never not be the case right there. Busy little stretch of roadway, too.

cycling / photo / Tuesday — Comments Off
22
Apr 25

I guess distances accurately

The cats have gracefully argued that they haven’t graced the page in almost two weeks. They remind me that they’re almost the sole cause of site traffic around here. I don’t know if they’re right about that, but they are the most popular feature here. Sometimes, they’re the only feature here. So, we should show them off.

I tried to get them to type this up, but they’re a little heavy on the keys. They also don’t have a firm grasp of punctuation, or what the space bar does.

What they lack in keyboard etiquette they make up for in patiently posing.

Phoebe was enjoying a little sunny afternoon time in the dining room.

Poseidon has his choice of boxes on which to sit.

The kitties are doing great, in other words. They are miffed about not landing on the site on Monday, though. And they’ve been letting me hear about it all day.

I had a nice 30 mile-bike ride today, over mostly the usual roads. Out to the river and back from the river and over to town, riding right across on Main Street, and then out past the edge of town. I was on a quiet two-lane road when I saw a woman walking from the other direction. Long pants. Hoodie. It was a warm spring evening. She raised her voice as I went by, asking if this was the way to the next town. Without slowing down, because she was not in distress, I yelled back over my shoulder, “Take this left and you’ll go left again, but it’s 15 miles from here.” It was almost 7 p.m. by then. I looked on a map later, and she was exactly 15 miles away on foot. I hope she made it to an Uber.

I crossed over Yorketown to Pierson, and then crossed Yorktown (there is a place where Yorketown and Yorktown intersect, and I wonder how many people have noticed that outside of this little town). I skirted the west side of the town limits, and then rode through the pastureland to get back home. If it sounds romantic, you don’t know the half of it.

This, though, was only my fifth ride of the month. I waited for forever for new tires to arrive. We traveled. There was work. This is all getting in the way of my accumulation of miles and shouting out directions to random passersby. Like I know where I’m going.

adventures / art / cycling / Monday / photo — Comments Off
21
Apr 25

Scenes since we last talked

Just a few shots that I captured over the last week, in the moments between doing the work that helps keep the lights on.

Walking the grounds, I enjoyed discovering the blooms on this little guy. But the tree refuses to stay in focus. But I almost got close once.

I wonder what this farmer is spreading here. Surely not nitrogen, that field is green a-plenty.

This will be a field full of delicious … something … let’s say strawberries … eventually. I’ll go back by there when the covers are off and try to figure out what they’ve planted.

I bet you never wondered if grazing cattle eat with any more urgency when they notice the sun is going down. I bet you’ll wonder about that now.

I recently got a new helmet. (I was due a new helmet!) And so my mother offered to get one for my birthday. (Wasn’t that nice of her?) This is one of the higher rated models according to the famous Virginia Tech lab that does these things, and, it’s a handsome looking piece of head wear.

It goes with just about anything, and let’s be honest, style matters as much as aerodynamic properties, and at least as much as “safety.”

Here’s the right side view.

And here’s the left side view.

Aero though it may be, it still doesn’t make me faster than my lovely bride. At least it didn’t on this ride. Have you ever been well and truly dropped right after taking a photograph. I have. (Again.)

(Notice her helmet has the name on it. Wear your helmets, kids, no matter if they are fashionable or branded.)

Maybe I’ll be faster on our next ride together.

Speaking of fashion, my Easter look.

Friday / photo / site — Comments Off
11
Apr 25

The problems of spring

This is a glorious time of year. The changing of seasons, the warmening of the soil, the bluening of the sky, the wettening of everything, these are lovely things, full of the promise of the future. The promisening of the future, if you will.

But there are things to complain about. There’s the pollen. And there is the impermanence of the weather. Granted, this one differs based on where you are. Some places spring just two or three days before you’re slouching your way into a bone-melting summer. Some places spring comes non-too-soon. Perhaps it just feels like a flirtation of spring. There’s the inconsistency, for a time, of the greenening of things. And there’s all of that winter and fall to deal with. Where do all those extra leaves come from?

Then there are the flowering buds.

Here’s what I’m urging the horticulturists and the botanists, the agronomists, the biologists, the bio-technologists and the plant breedologists to do: develop an attractive shrub, or dwarf tree, that blooms throughout the growing season.

Sure, this will take a little more energy, blooms are consumers, but think of the propagation possibilities of a plant that can offer bugs and bees pollen for months on end —

I now see the problem with this plan.

But maybe it’d be worth it. Isn’t everything so beautiful in the spring?

We’re going to have a brief hiatus on the blog. I’ve spent this week catching up, just in time for the end-of-semester pace to kick in. I’m hoping that, next week, I can get ahead of things for a change. Which will be great, because it will allow me time to get behind again in the weeks that follow. That’s the run to mid-May, just trying to stay in touch with the schedule and its demands.

But I’ll be writing here again on April 21st.

Maybe someone will figure out the ever bloomening tree by then.

photo / Thursday — Comments Off
10
Apr 25

Our backyard is becoming a colorful place

It seems I am forever grading things. Or in a meeting or performing the email ritual. Maybe those are the places this week is going. Who knows?

No, really. Who knows? I have no idea.

Anyway, things are shaping up nicely in the backyard. These were all photos from earlier this week.

Yes, it takes the first full week of April for things to turn neon green around here. It’s lovely, but much delayed.

I think this tree should flower all summer long. That’d be a delightful thing to see.

The camellias will. These guys are pretty amazing. They just sit alongside the house and do their thing. Asking for nothing, other than your attention.

And that bush deserves it. Maybe I’ll replace the email ritual with a shrubbery habit.