Grave of the fireflies

I watched Grave of the Fireflies tonight. (Sad Japanese animated movie about two children attempting to survive the loss of their parents in WWII, post-firebombed Japan.) To some extent I had a feeling similar to that of being on the aircraft carrier Intrepid (now a floating museum docked in Manhattan permanently). The firebombing of Hanoi was conducted from the bridge of that ship, so when I visited, I felt more like I was visiting Auschwitz than learning about American Naval machinery. Grave of the Fireflies is similar. You get a feeling of awe in the face of tragic history. Without being political, Fireflies depicts the impact on normal people trying to live their normal lives, when random death occasionally rains from the sky. Now, I'm all for death, don't get me wrong. The mortality rate for a human being is 100%. Something's going to kill you, if not planes, then cancer. If you live long enough, sleep alone will kill you. So the death thing is not really the sad part. What makes something sad is seeing the characters grapple with death, and empathizing with their emotional experience of loss. You recognize in them reflections of yourself, and how you yourself would be sad in just such a way, and that arouses sadness in you. I wasn't sad in this movie. Trying to explain that, I've come up with the following: that the protagonists were children. While innocent and morally blameless, they also experience the world as it happens -- neither good nor evil. If you're five at the end of WWII, all you know of the world is war. Indeed, it is a perfectly normal state of affairs for you, you've never known nor seen anything else. Thus the events that wash over your life, while challenging, cannot possibly evoke the same amount of emotional gravity. As a result, I, as an audience member, can't feel the loss in the same way the characters do, thus I find it hard to be sad when I watch the events unfold in their lives. Maybe I'm just out of touch with my inner child.

another business idea

For real estate investors, there should be gentrification consultants who forecast which neighborhoods are likely to see an influx of desireable price-hiking gentrifyers in the next five years. These consultants would most likely be gay people, because wherever they go, the neighborhood gets trendy, and prices go up. Indeed, perhaps we should all look forward to the arrival of a gay bar in our neighborhood, if only for the subsequent property appreciation.

a realization

If you live long enough, and stop meeting new people, everyone you know will die.

The perfect ad

Ad industry people will tell you that, at their core, ads are good for society, because they inform the consumer. People need to purchase goods and services to get on in this world, and ads arm them with information as to what goods and services are available. The problem I see with AdBusters, is that the group seems to contend that all ads are bad and harmful to the consumer, supporting products that hurt the environment and propping up Big Business. I don't buy that. It seems to me there are good ads. Indeed, let's suppose there is a spectrum of good ads and bad ads. On the bad side, there are ads that manipulate me into buying something I clearly don't need, using money I don't have, and making me feel bad about myself in order to do it. I think miracle diet pill ads might fall into this category. On the good side, an ad that said to me, just before shutting down my computer to leave the office, "Brian, before your dinner date tonight with Jennifer, you should stop by the Old Navy two blocks from your office and pick up some jeans. The ones you bought there 9 months ago are probably worn out, they have a sale, 2-for-1, and they close at 8:00pm." That would be the "ideal world" ad. A good ad would help you live your life. It would be *relevant*. It would: 1) give you the right message 2) at the right time / place 3) for the right products 4) and do it discreetly I think what most people object to about ads is that they are not relevant. They're mis-targeted, misinforming, intrusive, and manipulative. They don't help with life, they just clutter it. But ads don't have to be like that. If we had fewer, more targeted ads, society would actually run better. Perhaps we should be fighting to make that a reality?

google maps

So I've been saying for a while that Google maps is the most important thing to happen to the internet since Netscape. And now, I have found the killer app, to answer the question, what if I dug a hole through the center of the earth? http://grad.icmc.usp.br/~cipriani/bighole.php Apparently, currently, I'd end up off the south west coast of Australia. Which is a shame really because I always thought I'd end up in China like those Bugs Bunny cartoons show.

show me the money

Apparently, just over one third of bloggers blog for reasons of professional visibility. They're lawyers or consultants or authors and they want to raise their profile in their chosen field. An "online market research" professional myself, perhaps I should be doing the same soon. I could deluge this forum with clever insights on Google's strategy in the SEO space, could speak of cutting-edge survey methodologies online. I could even, given the inclination, speak at all times of 'the next big thing' in online media. Put it to a vote? would anyone read such stuff?

a business idea

Someone should build software that allows individual New Yorkers to sell 24-hour access to their wi-fi for $1. Everytime I try to get on the internet from a cafe in this city, some corporate wi-fi provider is trying to charge me $20 for 24 hours access. Nonsense! All these other private nets have a strong signal, but they're locked. I'd pay a buck to use their link for a little while. And who couldn't use an extra buck or two a month?

Bad marketing?

I saw a sign in the tourist area yesterday touting "ice cold water served here". Isn't ice-cold water just . . . ice?

Am I a socialist?

An identity crisis, of sorts, has seized upon me. On the one hand, I'm a libertarian, small-government, free-market kind of guy. People vote with their feet, and I assume that what the market will pay for, is what the market needs, and what efficiently distributes resources. On the other hand, out of all possible places, I live in New York City: the most overtaxing, liberal, socialistic city in the USA. I pay a city, state, and federal income tax, 8% sales tax, and huge transportation fees. I could live anywhere, but I live here. In socialism. Have I voted with my feet?

Brave new world of Media

An interesting site, and sure to soon be sued out of existence: http://www.rentmydvr.com I'm convinced that with all the advertisement avoidance technology out there; the DVR's, the adblockers, the podcasting; marketers will soon be blending their product pitches into the fabric of the content more and more. The Pepsi cans will be in the video games, we'll have more viral videos, better, and more clever branding websites. Rather than encapsulating the content, the ads will *be* the content. At the same time, people will become more and more accustomed to paying for content they like out of their own pockets. I'd much rather buy a TV show for $.20 than sit through eight minutes of commercials in half an hour.

Strategery

Imagine the same conversation, held by two pairs of people. One pair is a gossiping set of office workers, talking about what Tom Cruise's next movie ought to be. The exact same conversation, word for word, happens simultaneously in Hollywood, between Michael Ovitz and Steven Spielberg. One of these conversations will have far-reaching ramifications, the other is a waste of time. In the same way, intellectuals like to crowd around coffeeshops and parse through the various issues of the day. A tiny fraction of those conversations will be important, though many of them will produce superior ideas. The penultimate question, then, is not whether an idea is good, but whether the idea is in good hands.

'Burbs

I've developed a new theory, under which I can possibly imagine myself one day moving to the suburbs. The theory is as follows: among the various resources we as human beings have at our disposal -- money, knowledge, time, favors from friends, family, etc -- we have a sort of renewable resource: Energy. From the age of say, 20, to the age of 100, we can expect this daily resource to dwindle. I'm definitely not going to start the next Google at the age of 90, I simply won't have the energy to invest. Now living in a major city like New York takes energy. Bumping into people on the sidewalk all day, the sirens in the middle of the night, the constant stimulation. In my arrogant youth, I can wastefully toss off chunks of energy to pushing through grocery stores and climbing five flights of stairs to my apartment three times a day. The benefits of living in the big city more than outweigh the cost. But the age-based energy dwindling will bring about a conservation backlash. I'll jealously guard my calories. I'll look at how much energy I have to spend in a day, and how much I'll need for my job and my family and my legions of fans (naturally), and I'll realize that I simply have no room left in the caloric budget for crowded grocery stores. I'll need to find a low-energy alternative. And suddenly, the suburbs will appeal to me.

VIP

Not accustomed to good treatment by bouncers at fancy clubs, I was surprised yesterday by the Adbumb hosted party at Show Nightclub. Their idea of "carding" people was checking business cards at the door. Suddenly, for working at Nielsen, I was cool enough to be admitted, no questions asked. Perhaps I should start name dropping more often. Then I can party with Paris.

Building a better mousetrap?

So our new east village apartment seems to have a Mouse Problem. We've caught three of them now, having littered our floor with just about every imaginable type of glue, snap, and tilting trap on the market. My significant other, being terrified of mice, has been living like a fugitive for the last few nights. She wakes up at the slightest sound, leaves the lights on in order to spot them scurrying about our living room, can't be left home alone in the apartment. Our craigslist ad, seeking to "borrow" a hunting cat for a week, elicited no responses. The situation is dire. Fortunately an exterminator weilding "industrial strength powder" will be sprinkling our apartment tomorrow afternoon. Let's hope its toxicity won't take us out as well.