feeling is mutual-- the blog!

8/01/2007

Three... three... three posts in one!

1.Why is it that whenever I use stock photography featuring "people-of-a-color-other-than-white" I have to have the awkward "it's a little too ethnic" discussion? Is this a normal customer reaction in all markets? How do you, as a designer, respond to customer requests for white-washing?

It really puts me in an awkward place morally as I have to find a happy medium between the client pleasing oh yes, what was I thinking!? White upper middle class faces coming right up! and self-righteous scorn. In my experience, when a client is given the choice of two ads, identical in every way other than the model's ethnicity, the client will always always choose the ad featuring the white model.

If any social scientist out there would like to conduct a study on race relations within small market advertising, I'm totally down with providing the data.

2. Check out this write up of ol' Tim Youmans published this week in the News-Star. It's not every day that someone essentially dubs you a present day incarnation of Woody Guthrie. I especially appreciated that the story gave me not one but TWO opportunities to say "Oh yeah, that Woody Guthrie guy? He was my marriage counselor." I don't get to name drop often so it was a very special day for me.
I saw Tim at lunch yesterday but I was too socially awkward to say hello... what with his new found fame and all. Listen to his free music for folks at myspace.com/timseantunes. Listen to the pretty melodies but to the lyrics above all. I can especially get down on (in a meditative way) the song "A Pretty Good Time", a touching tribute to Tim's youth group at First Baptist.

we will have a pretty good time
please be safe, in all the right ways
we’ll find there’s so much to give up
and in that, so much to gain
remember God in the days of youth
before we tire and grow weary
and we will have a pretty good time
as our lives shimmer and shine

3. On our way to OKC for our first official meeting of the Obama campaign volunteers, Chris and I were so psyched that, if asked, we would have driven all the way to Iowa to begin canvassing that very night! We had Hope in our hearts and Policy Reform on our lips! There was no greater man in Washington than Barack Obama and we, THE PEOPLE, were going to storm the White House in his name.

As we drove down the highway I imagined all the volunteers meeting together for the first time like old friends – all of us united in purpose. We'd pile on a bus to the tune of bird chirps and laughing children. We would all join and hands, guitars would come out of no where, and "We Shall Overcome" would be sung in 3 part harmony all the way to Des Moines! Somewhere, someone would buy the world a Coke.

Oh. My. Lord. What a gigantically excruciating disappointment.

When the meeting was adjourned we trudged back to our car... the only hope we had left was the hope that we would never ever see any of those people ever again.

Come with me on a journey towards disillusionment: The scene: An over crowded banquet room at "On the Border". Imagine that every person in the room was driven to attend the rally out of a desire for business networking rather than any kind of "audacious hope" for American politics. Imagine two straight hours of straining to hear the speaker over the "I'm richer than you" one-up manship going on around you. Watch in awe as business cards materialize out of thin air along with empty requests to "get with" their "people". Also, imagine that your refried beans were dry and crusty from being under a heat lamp too long and that the guy next to you, practically in your lap, is a little more than tipsy from a margarita the size of your head. Watch in disgust as Tipsy Man seems to really enjoy touching all the chips in the communal chip bowl.

Awesome.

"But Marissa", you say, "I was there! It was hardly the colossal waste of time and gas money that you imply!" Than I guess we weren't at the same table then, were we?

Special quotes from the evening:

"I would love to attend the Barack-B-Que, but I'll be in Aspen that weekend."

"Do you know _insert obscure name drop_?" "Oh yes! Her family used to summer near our beach home!"

"I'm voting for Mitt Romney anyway - have to look out for the ol' wallet."

Which brings to mind one other quote "I like your Obama, I do not like your Obama Mamas. Your Obama Mamas are so unlike your Barack Obama.” You tell'em Gahndi.

Thank you for letting me get this off my chest. Chris won't let me talk about it anymore.

Labels: barack obama, christianity, life, music, oklahoma, politics, work

posted at 7:46 PM

1 comments

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12/07/2006

1. I love snow a ton... but not when there is a ton on my driveway for seven whole days and then it turns into ice and then I fall and bust my knees everyday (almost). As if I needed another reason to hate going to work in the mornings. It was a little slushy when I got home last night which made me super excited... but it is now freezing back over as we speak, because the world hates my knees.
The weather has been so consistantly frigid that my chin is numb and chaffing from rubbing against my scarf.

2. After two and a half years of working for the man, the day of reckoning finally arrived. PERFORMANCE REVIEWS. Two years of dread, two years of looking through the classifieds every time the possibility of a review came up, two years of... hey hold on.... my review kicked the man in the shins! What's that?! I'm fantastic?! Well of course... you dared to doubt it!? Yeah, me too.

3. Marty,
I still have your copy of The Crane Wife. I'm guessing that you've long since come to that realization. I bet you left it at my house on purpose.... a hipster's response to an errant earring on my bedside table, perhaps?* Either way, a care package is in order. My phone's name for you and Linda when texting? "Kinda Nasty". I forgot about that little nugget of awesomeness.

* Not meant in a provocative way. Only that you're just looking for any excuse possible to come back to Shawnee. Like Mecca it calls out to you.

4. If anyone sees my tweezers, let them know that I'm looking for them and that I miss them very much. My eyebrows are going crazy with worry.

5. Ember Van Allen,
I miss you even more than my tweezers and I love your face. Your knees give me butterflies. No one wears a hungarian vowel quite like you. Seeing you twice in one year spoiled me and now my heart weeps because you've dropped off the face of the planet (my planet, at least). Maybe you'll get bored at your schmancy new job and google yourself, then you'll find this and realize the folly that is myspace neglect.

6. Even though It's freezing out, I know it will be a good day because I have a biscuit from Braum's. It fills my heart with gladness... takes away all my sadness.

Labels: life, work

posted at 10:08 AM

7 comments

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9/05/2006

Labor Day...just...won't...die....

Okay, now it has. I'm done.
The final copy is at flickr. Download it at original size so you can make copies and pass it out to Starbucks workers and incite conflict in the workplace... be an organizer. Keep in mind that the poor thing was killed before the proofing process began so pass it out at your own risk.

Labels: art, craft, life, politics, work

posted at 11:45 PM

0 comments

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