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Wednesday

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.

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9
Apr 25

Catvertising

I’ve been derelict in my cat sharing duties, and they let me know it. So let’s jump in here. We have a chalkboard wall in the kitchen, and I thought I’d use it for a little advertising. I am an excellent copywriter, and have the journalistic and academic accolades to prove it. Apparently, I can write good ad copy, as well. Poseidon was susceptible to my powers of suggestion.

Phoebe was unimpressed. She’s not falling for that sort of messaging. I think, in fact, she might be a little embarrassed by him.

Class today was group presentation day. I’d paired off the students and they each picked a country and had to research and tell us about the media there. I’d naively thought we’d get through 10 groups today. We did five.

But we learned interesting things about South Korea — they have more video gaming centers there than we have McDonald’s, apparently. We also had a presentation about Spain, where we learned about how the mass media has behaved during government transitions. A group told us about the cultural influences on the media in Brazil. Two others told us about France. One of them tried very hard to pronounce French names, but struggled throughout. The other speaks French, and it showed. And we also learned about the media in Switzerland, which has a strong public media (most of Europe does) and is otherwise heavily influenced by their surrounding nations and cultures. But their flag is a big plus!

Five more countries to go next Monday, when we’ll learn more about Italy, Germany, Mexico, Ecuador and Cameroon.

adventures / friends / photo / Wednesday — Comments Off
2
Apr 25

Conferencing

After I did the monthly cleaning of the computer — updating some spreadsheets and other documents, deleting stuff from the desktop and the downloads folder, and so on — I returned to the equally exciting task of packing for this afternoon’s road trip.

But before we left I got a stern talking to. Poseidon pointed out I was behind on the site’s most popular weekly feature, the check-in on the kitties. And he was also upset that, last week, Phoebe got a closeup and he did not.

They are jealous cats. So here you go, Poe, a recent closeup, to keep things equal between the two of you.

Phoebe also noticed we were two days behind. She was gearing up to tell me all about it, you can tell.

Next week he’ll probably want a photo in a bag or box, too. They are very jealous of one another. Him more so, but only because they haven’t yet realized that jealous is a thing they can compete for, too.

And, so you see, the are doing just great. Now they’re hanging out with a sitter, because we are just under five hours away, in beautiful and scenic Norfolk. Here’s a blurry shot from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel route. See if you can guess which this part is, bridge or tunnel.

We’re in Norfolk for the 95th convention of the Southern States Communication Association. This is our 10th time to this conference, and then second time we’ve attended it in Norfolk. The first time, my lovely bride won an award there. We’ve won two others, too. These days, we go back to point that out a little, but mostly to see our friends.

This is our first time at SSCA since 2017, though, because of other obligations, travel budget reasons and Covid.

Most everyone got in in time for dinner tonight, so we had some catching up today. We had blueberry french toast at this restaurant near the hotel.

And it was great, but seeing our friends was even better. You can text people and have group chats and do all of that, but when youget to see them in person you realize keenly what’s been lacking. These are sweet, sassy, incredibly smart people, people we have worked with and presented with and laughed with and so on since grad school. We get to spend a long weekend hanging out with them, and call it work.

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26
Mar 25

We saw Adam via Zoom

My old friend Adam joined our class via Zoom. He’s recently stepped down from a command of American Forces Network Europe, where he managed dozens of stations on two continents. It seemed a good perspective to add to our international media class. And he had a lot to offer, so I’m glad he took the time.

I was trying to remember, but we met in 2011. I wrote a piece about a distant cousin of his, a World War 2 hero, one of the Doolittle Raiders. Soon after we met in person, and became fast friends. He took a master’s degree and became one of my lovely bride’s students. We’ve toured Alaska and Ireland together.

We are close in age. His hometown is just one or two towns over from my grandparents. Once, we tried to decide if we’d ever been to some event as kids. We decided the most likely place would have been a steakhouse. My grandparents’ church dismissed earlier than his church, so it’s possible that he had to wait on us to leave so he could eat lunch.

I wrote a little bio of him for my students. It’s been an impressive, long career. Multiple deployments, some great experiences and some less than great. He’s now just a few months from retiring from the Army, an exceedingly happy family man, and studying to become a commercial pilot. We’re trying to talk him and his wife into moving close to us. I’m not sure if I’ve sold him on it yet, but you’ve seen the pictures around here. One of my angles is that it is a lot like home.

(Speaking of home … He knew where his ancestor who immigrated from England came from. Adam and I once visited that road in London.)

Speaking of pictures, I took these the other day and I’m cleaning up my phone.

As the weather warms up and the bikes go back on the roads, it is good to see these signs still out there reminding people about the rules of the road.

That one is relatively new. At least I don’t remember seeing it last year.

And here’s a man out there discing that dirt. That field, if it is all his, goes back some ways. He was probably doing that all afternoon.

That was Saturday, because you work every day on a farm. I wonder what they were doing there today. A lot more than me, I’m sure of it.

cycling / photo / Wednesday — Comments Off
19
Mar 25

The miles ahead

One of the good and, at the same time, one of the bad things about the variability of the weather is that it dictates whether I go for a ride. And, today, it was just nice enough to take my second outdoor ride of the year.

Also, it was new glove day.

And when it takes more than one hand of fingerless gloves to count my outdoor rides, I’ll stop counting them. Maybe in another week or so. Because the weather forecasts are all over the place.

Anyway, I bought those gloves at a bike shop in Chicago. I went looking for helmets. While the store’s site had what I was interested in seeing, they did not have it on the floor. The shop was small enough that it would look awkward to go in, buy nothing and leave. So I walked around looking for that helmet and trying to think of what else I needed. What I needed was a new pair of gloves.

I don’t even remember when I bought my old ones, but they are old and crusty, even after washing them. The padding in the palms have lost their effectiveness. So it was time, I was at a bike shop, and the price at that bike shop was the same price I found online.

(I took out six paragraphs of observations and complaints about bike shops here. You’re welcome.)

And so I had a nice ride today, just 25 miles around the local roads.

It’s scenic and pastoral. Most of the roads are peaceful enough. But this is going to be the year where I go longer and seek out new roads routes. Gonna have to be.

Today, though, I got in just in time to see the sunset across the way.

Timing, they say, is … something.