a thousand and one blogs

its been a long time since i've blogged on the site, so i'll try to get a bunch of them in together. if anyone gets lost, feel free to leave a comment to let me know.

"No Logo" by Naomi Klein and "Hype" by Kalle Lasn

These pieces covered the issues surrounding adverstising, how advertising companies use subversive techniques to capture its market, and how advertising in general effects the public as a whole. Many of these findings came to no surprise to me because I knew most of them that were being used, if not through research then by daily coming and goings of life. We as a public are forced at times to have our physical and mental space invaded...even now as I'm typing this post, there is a constant bombardment (sp?) of advertisements with pop ups. The sad part is, that is the point of advertisement which has evolved into overwhelming the viewer into submitting to the product they're trying to sell. As much as I hate to say it, putting ad's in a bathroom however invasive this is can be really effective. I don't think it should be done because personally I just want some peace and privacy in that situation. It does go to show though that companies are willing to do whatever it takes to keep its market or reach out to a new one. One such example that i could think of was McDonald's who start their market age very early with the Happy Meal. And they're not the only ones, because from a young age we're marketed. It actually frightens me to think what advertising can do to a certain point; I'll just take up my job to make my own decisions instead of letting advertising decide for me.

"Nickel-and-Dimed..." by Ehrenreich and "Pennies and Hour..." by Kernaghan
The sheer insanity of this article kept me rivetted. Though once again, I'm not completely surprised by the result Ehrenreich got when she went to look for work after leaving such a cushy job. In all honesty, it felt to me as though she had a condescending (sp?) tone at first to think that it would actually be easy to find a crap job since she is so over qualified. Speaking from experience it's difficult to find work anywhere that pays decently because there is always someone who, even if they're less than qualified, is more than willing to work for less than the standard pay. I give her kudos though for effort and the fact she did it at all.
On the point that there are plenty of people out there willing to work for far less than standard pay, there is enough proof overseas to demonstrate this well. Children and adults alike are crammed into unsafe conditions for pennies a day in order to have some sort of cash income. Unfortunately with the pay and working conditions, its much more of an uphill climb than most bargin for. It makes me ill to think that some little kid made me a hat for less than a fraction of what I bought it for.
All in all, I feel like hell for buying into the companies that advertise to me constantly, get their products made by poor little kids, and are getting the major cuts of their profit. thanks those sections of reading was a blast...


"Fortress Los Angeles" by Mike Davis and "Goths in Tomorrowland" by Thomas Hine
Goths in Disneyland; the two don't really belong in a sentence either. Let's take something pastel, bright, beautiful, and seemingly perfect and throw in an element of extreme darkness, sadness, and just plain morbidness. Along that note, lets take the homeless in a business district in a city like Los Angeles. The bigger issue here is a case of image. Its a matter of something clean, perfect, and idealized that is supposedly being invaded by that is considered dirty, dark, morbid, and "wrong" by society. For 'Goths' I came to a simple conclusion...who cares about image if these punks are giving you money? If they have no where else to go, let them be weird, but weird in a safe environment. For 'Fortress' my conclusion was, honestly if they want your garbage and refuse, then let them have it. If you don't want them rummaging around in your crap, then donate to charities, or set up a shelter for these people to go! Until you, and I am speaking to the authors, realize that circumstantially speaking these people have no other option to keep on doing what they're doing, I suggest you shut the hell up.

"Shopping for Pleasure" by John Fiske.
I'll make this one simple: this guy has way too much time on his hands and is looking to far into too simple of a subject matter.
Since i can't get away with a one sentence answer, i will continue on my point. True, there are instances, however few and far between where kids have gone to the mall drunk, which completely eludes me as to why. True, kids go to the mall to hang out and NOT BUY ANYTHING. This is because they're kids and kids typically DON'T HAVE JOBS TO EARN MONEY! However, once again they need a safe, controlled area to go and just chill. Now if companies have the opportunity to expose their products to future customers, i don't see a problem here. And the whole thing about the mall being a church, i've heard this metaphor before about malls becoming temples of excess. I've had enough of this metaphor because to an extent it may be true, but for crying out loud its not that bad. there is a world of difference between a church to worship, and a place to buy some khakis or something.
Finally, lets get one fact across here: adults are scared of teenagers. Always have, probably always will for whatever reason. So yeah, enough of that.

Paper Idea
I have no idea what I want to do for this paper, but I am leaning in the general directions of either "Goths in Tomorrowland", or "Nickel-and-Dimed..." for my paper. I'm choosing these particular essays because they seem to be issues I could follow up on very well.
comments or ideas welcome.