Steve Hall is taking a lot of shit for
his column on the recent VT tragedy and the issue of gun control. (And I thought
Prince’s songs were a sore spot over there.) It’s unfortunate because he’s expressing his passion on the issue and it’s getting lost on people taking it as a direct threat to their right to bear arms.
Geez man, people, c’mon, get past the words and hear the emotion behind it all. Gun control advocate or not, we
should be outraged this happened. I am. However, I also come at the issue from a decidely different POV. Everyone has their own opinion and nothing I say will change that, nor should it. Just throwing my own meandering, frustrated rant out there for consideration.
I grew up around guns. While other 8-year olds were playing with the toy versions, I was shooting the real things on a range. Learned to handle, clean and respect them, as did my brothers. My father helped built a small firearms company out of Buffalo, NY which later grew into
Charter Arms. If they made it, I fired it. We didn’t think twice about the issue of guns being right or wrong. They were part of our everyday life.
Except when it came time to explain what dad did for a living:
“No, he’s not a doctor like Jimmy’s dad. No,
my dad makes guns. [crickets chirping] Yeah, the .38 used to shoot Alabama governor George Wallace? His. Oh yeah, and the one The Son of Sam used? .44 Bulldog. He made that too.” And if I wasn’t despised enough at that point, “Mark Chapman also used a CA .38 to shoot John Lennon.” Talk about a nice career hat trick. (My father was out of the company at that point, not that it matters to those swearing at me right now. Maybe there’s bad karma coming my way, who knows.)
Regardless, every single time there was a major shooting, I’d hear the gun control debate loud and clear. “Guns don’t kill people...,” or “You can pry my gun from my fingers....” “Someone gets attacked with a baseball bat or knife, we’re not going to now eliminate all the bats and knives, are we?” All of it.
Now you can argue the number of guns we have in this country is so plentiful that by eliminating them, we cut down on the ratio of deaths from them by default alone. Maybe. But realistically, as long as there are some bad motherfuckers out there bent on doing what they do, they will find the guns or other weapons. They’ll likely steal them from law-abiding citizens if they have to.
They always do.
Now if you haven’t stopped reading at this point or aren’t throwing rocks at the screen, I’ll also say that while I feel there needs to be some form of general gun control, I can’t support eliminating them. Cops need them first of all. (Game hunters, please, you don’t need an AK for Bambie. Not even Chuck Heston can convince me they do.) But secondly,
trying to take guns off the street does nothing to eliminate the ones that will be hidden as soon as you make the move. You’d have to declare martial law and go house to house to get them all.
Good luck there.
Inevitably, the first thing you hear after a shooting like this is, “Well,
if there were gun control, there would have been no gun for so-and-so to use.” Ok. But we live in the real world, not the ‘if’ world, and we
do have a lot of guns around. Wishing they
weren’t doesn’t deal with the fact they’re out there now.
This nation was built on firearms, and that hasn’t changed, has it? If you wanna go further, then take Chris Rock up on his idea and have more bullet control–charge $5,000 per round. Instead, I propose there’s something else we need to better at: whacko control.
Make that, whacko
detection. (And before I get comments saying I’m not being PC, how about ‘detection of people with mental health issues.’ Better?
Metal detectors in schools may pick up a concealed weapon, but who detects the list of ‘people to kill’ that some kid has in his backpack, and why aren’t they doing a better job?
To misuse another farm metaphor as I tend to do, we’re really good in this country at fixing the barn door after the horse escapes. Hell, we reassembled a 747 from nothing and determined within
feet just where in the cargo hold the radio with C4 was placed that had brought it down over Lockerbie, Scotland. And in the coming days, we’re going to apply that same Good Old US of A can-do spirit and find out much about this VT shooter:
His grades. His favorite bands. His myspace friends. His dog’s name. Even the vultures on network TV news channels under the guise of “making sure it never happens again” will interview his neighbors and his coworkers for those ‘signs of trouble.’
And it won’t fucking matter.
Because we SUCK at figuring out ways to prevent that horse from escaping in the first place, let alone knowing why it wanted to. And those signs of trouble? We do
nothing about recognizing them. The very characteristics and warning signs we’ll soon discover were there all along in this case.
We always do.
How many examples of ignoring the troubled, the evil people, do we need?
For weeks leading up to the Columbine massacre, the mother of one of Satan’s Spawn heard constant banging of pipes and noises late at night in her kid’s room. They wore all black and were writing hate messages on their own web pages. Yet she dismissed the sounds as nothing, returning to her work. She didn’t even know about the writings.
It’s stuff like
that which truly outrages me. This denial, this attitude of, “Oh, they’re only kidding” or “They’re kids being kids.”
This has
nothing to do with gun control and everything to do with failure to act on what is right in front of you, that which you know feels wrong. (And if anybody should be blamed in this, it should be VT for not locking down the whole place sooner.) After all we’ve gone through at this point in society, every threat must be treated seriously.
Two hours later? 30 more dead. Officials act as if they can sleep at night knowing they did all they could.
Yeah, right.
Until we take them seriously and deal with the depressed person who says “What’s the use,” or “I want to end it all,” the student who says they “have a list” or “people will be sorry,” the despondent former boyfriend who keeps stalking his ex even
with a restraining order in place...
This. Will. Keep. Happening.
So while we should think about the families left behind who lost somebody in this, also think about the others around you who are asking for help in subtle ways. Cut off access to their illegal and legal guns if you want, especially if it’s determined they have mental health issues, but take them seriously, because they will find some other way to hurt themselves and others.
They always do.
“Would you believe I’m calling you from a blog?” As much as MTLB readers know how I just love Steve Carell in the Office, this may actually be a great role for him: Maxwell Smart in the upcoming Get Smart movie. Only problem is whether this flick will be able to successfully transition from TV Land lore into well-worn Austin Powers territory.
Patrick Swayze's mosaic of manhood.
Oh I know what you’re thinking, that the season started with the combine. Nuh-uh. Today. Today is the day when our dreams are realized–or shattered. Where for two days, people actually care about who Mel Kiper Jr. is. It’s the day you scream that your team picked who? And then one year later go “That guy is amazing—I knew it along.”
Like, medieval old school for the release of God Of War II with an actual goat sacrifice. Now that’s a promotion. Four out of five Sony marketing execs who choose blood and gore agree:
Ladies and gentlemen, your presidental candiate and her pick for VP, (or vice-versa). Debate or no debate, they’re both too strong individually not to team up, so Dems should stop dancing around the issue right now and start printing up the banners. A unified Democratic team a year-and-a-half out building name recognition among voters would be unheard of. Hannity would be beside himself. It’s what I’d do if I was running their show. The other 800 lb. issue in the room is whether America would be ready for both a woman and African-Amercian pres/VP team. They haven’t shown they are, Geraldine Ferraro notwithstanding.
Your ass.
Speaking of awkward moments in sports flicks. Was watching White Men Can’t Jump again. (It was on, I had to.) And at the end, you get to that awkward slo-moment between Woody and Weslie. You know the one. Which reminded of another ‘special’ slo-moment in Rocky 3, after Sly beats Carl in the second beach race. Peeee-robably not the most manly of scenes for either pair of actors. That both moments come right after impossible scenarios makes it even more fun: 
This Unpluggit is a Ben & Jerry’s viral effort aimed at getting people to unplug their computers. Why unplug? Well, I’ll tell you. According to the site, it’s to help cut down on energy still used even when stuff is turned off. Now, I really never thought about that, I just like virals that use sex to get their point across. Even then, I’m still too lazy to crawl under the desk and unplug. I’d also have used fear. As in, no matter how many surge protectors you have, unplug your stuff so it doesn’t fry during a lightening strike and you end up replacing your motherboard–just like idiot me had to once.
AdOfTheMonth.com was founded by Dalbir Singh from Ogilvy/Budapest. Although this one won’t cost you anything and the judges critiquing the online submissions actually give their name and photo, not some anon troll who goes “This ad sucks.” Now, like real award shows, there’s no guarantee that the entrees are legit. Still, maybe award shows could go this way by making them free to enter. At least smaller agencies won’t go broke feeding that entry fee demon.
Ok, little shout-out for a worthwhile cause. A writer friend of mine whose son is autistic tipped me to this. The band Five For Fighting is generously donating $0.49 to Autism Speaks for each time their video is viewed. You don’t have to donate anything besides a few minutes to watch it. The funding goes toward research studies to help find a cure. When you have a moment, please watch it and pass it along to your friends and family. They are aiming for 10,000 hits. (On a personal note, I know at least four creatives with autistic kids.) The numbers are scary when you realize 1 in every 150 children are diagnosed with it. Thanks.
My title sucks, I know. It’s all I can come up with right now though. First, there was the campaign to give the finger to Hummers. Now comes a campaign to rid England of 4x4 vehicles. (Good luck trying that here.) Anyway, go their site, download a sign for your car, and wave 4x4xBye next time you see one. I mean, over there. Well, maybe here. I don’t know. This whole thing’s very British.
Or your mobile. Or online. Or wherever the hell it is you watch TV now. According to Drudge, 
SO NOT ONLY DO I SPEND TWO YEARS IN A CHINESE PRISON GETTING TORTURED, BUT MY WOMAN COMES LOOKING FOR ME AND SUPPOSEDLY DIED. WHICH, NOBODY TELLS ME BECAUSE THEY NEED ME TO FIND AND DISARM SOME NUKES. THEN, WHEN I DO FINALLY TRACK HER DOWN AFTER DISCOVERING SHE’S ALIVE? SHE DOESN’T KNOW WHO I AM. AFTER WHICH, I TAKE A FEW SLUGS AND GET ARRESTED JUST FOR FUN. AND IF THAT’S NOT BAD ENOUGH, MY BOSS IS A YOGA INSTRUCTOR.
Via Drudge comes word that the UK wants to study possible harmful effects of Wi-Fi on people. The thinking behind all this is that an electromagnetic field disrupts normal cells in the body, so having Wi-Fi all around you is maybe something that needs looking at. Hard for some to believe. Conventional wisdom says everything causes cancer, so what does it matter, right? If it’s not one thing that will kill you, it’s another. Me, I should have webbed hands by now from all the screenprinting chemicals I breathed in while in college, let alone the 20 cases of Spray Mount I’ve likely breathed in over the years.
Heard from ihaveanidea.org after my Texas comment on Portfolio Night 5 and it seems like agencies down South have been emailing them as well. Keep it up. Let em know you want to be a part of it. (Email Brett McKenzie here.) They have two weeks until the portfolio night so hound their ass like a jr. trying to get an interview with a CD. There’s also more songs from the house band Burn Back here and on myspace. James, AC, where you guys at? (And someone email Mack, tell him to put down the kid and the Gatorade and look at some books.)
Cool Gatorade spot with Jeter and Harvey Keitel. The Wolf on the field as first base coach slash mystical badass. At first, I thought he may not be the best choice because he sounds like he’s trying to come off as the typical Gandolfini-like gangster. Then I realized, it’s The Wolf. Don’t mess with The Wolf–ever. (And as an added extra bit of fun, you can buy the shoes Jeter allegedly wore for the shoot.)
I know this one’s copyranter territory, but I couldn’t help it. I was listening to Mayor Bloomberg talk about his idea to add a Manhattan congestion surcharge of $8 for those driving below 86th Street from 6 am to 6 pm. Sweet. (He was on 
(I have to purge this stuff from my head people, I do.) Got nine, count ’em, nine tags so far. Whatta about a single universal tag card you sign up for online to use in any participating store. Retailers already have the barcode for each one, so they can just switch over to a single code for each consumer. You opt-in online to the stores you use–brands get to continue gathering valuable sales data we hate them so much for.
First you had David Lee Roth in drag getting his message on, then you had Greenpeace taking over the Kleenex blue couch in the street campaign. Now this person does the thought bubble thing behind Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. (Two things. First, move to the left. NO, your left. Second. How are these people getting in?)
Nike stuff is always solid, but David over at The Ranch has the cleanest, simplest response that could’ve been done regarding Imus, sports and race.
You never know when that answering machine message will come back to haunt you. Guess Kim wasn’t the psycho after all. Man, someone call DYFS after listening to Baldwin go off on his daughter. If this is part of the 30 Rock promotion to have Alec call your friend and leave a message, sign me up.
Oh get me going on this one. So I’m going to pay $100 to hear theories in NY or LA on maximizing ROI for theater owners and marketing agencies? Yeah, ok, whatever. I’ll pass. Instead, got a few ideas of my own for free:
“I’ve seen it all” is an easy comment to make, but when something works, ya stick with it. I’ve now seen it all. This viral and TV spot for Nivea UK from TWBA London is promoting their new skin product that works on cellulite. Supposedly, it was only released as a viral according to the PR release, but then I saw it as a TV spot on YT. You sure wouldn’t guess what this stuff does though from watching it. Which begs the question, if it does work as promised, wouldn’t you want more people to know about it across all media? Why only mention it in the PR release that consumers won’t see. You have to dig a little on the microsite for product info here.
What better way to follow-up a post on gun control than with a review of Grindhouse. No gun control here, that’s for sure. I didn’t know what to expect after reading a few lousy reviews of the flick, but since it’s Tarantino and Rodrigeuz I kept an open mind. For me, I wasn’t disappointed. I watched a lot of the flicks referenced here like White Line Fever, Vanishing Point and Deathrace 2000 and a slew of zombie flicks. Both directors hold a mirror up to those slasher/exploitation flicks of the seventies and nail them perfectly. And that’s where they both work best. Lower your expectations–Pulp Fiction’s ultra-hip dialogue this ain’t, nor is it meant to be.
many times these days, the source material is forced or barely there. Take That Seventies Show or a commercial like The LeBrons. Both merge a sitcom format from way back with a modern slick sensibility. That’s not a bad thing because they work. I just think if you’re going to pay tribute to a certain look and feel, don’t fuck around and hide your sources under a slick veneer. Go all-in. Grindhouse has the best title sequences since Seven. (No slight on Kyle Cooper either, but the production house kicked ass on all the graphics here.)
Steve Hall is taking a lot of shit for his column on the recent VT tragedy and the issue of gun control. (And I thought Prince’s songs were a sore spot over there.) It’s unfortunate because he’s expressing his passion on the issue and it’s getting lost on people taking it as a direct threat to their right to bear arms.
Or explained a little more. Hj responded to Ad Age comments in a post that I think encapulates the Imus thing pretty well. Ernie weighed in. James too.
Wow. Another gem from 1970. Wonder if the men’s group who thinks Volvo should avoid giving their account to Arnold ever saw this ad. (Click to enlarge). Since it’s hard to read the body copy, here’s what is says:
Got a couple hundred shots in the group now. For new readers, the Random Logo Project is a group on Flickr I started for people to upload any logo they take a pic of. (No Photoshopped images.) See it. Shoot it. Upload it. Just add this tag to your photo: randomlogoproject when you post it to the group.
Martials arts center with a jingle? Yup.
Someone made that comment last year and it stuck with me. With all the ways we now have to spend our time on media, (TV shows, online webisodes, countless “DVDs of season 1 now available,” virals, blogs, mags, etc.), we only really have two hours to enjoy any one of those things fully. At least I do. Can’t read a book, watch a DVD or listen to an album all at once. Can you?
