Actually, I just wanted to catch everyone up on recent events and was going to call this post “Potpourri,” but I think I’ve used that title before and it also reminded me of this tea I got from Albertsons recently. The packaging claims that the tea is a “Luscious blend of peaches & fine herbs.” When I drink it, the tea tastes like the way potpourri smells. So while I’ve never been inclined to let a back of potpourri steep in hot water, I imagine it would taste very similar to Bigelow Perfect Peach Herb Tea.
Video Killed the Copywriting Star
Don’t get me wrong; I enjoy having varying tasks at work and having the natural abilities to handle those tasks. On top of my normal marketing copywriting, I also do a lot of other things that aren’t necessarily related to writing and that I’ve no doubt blogged about in previous posts. While I don’t enjoy all of the extra duties, like manual labor for instance, it’s nice to break up the monotony of writing about barbecue islands and such. Variety helps keep me sane. On the other hand, I think I prefer the spreading out the variety rather than having it all clumped up, back to back. Or back to back to back, as the case may be.
Ever since the executives at my company put enough faith into the marketing department to produce a decent product video, we’ve had to shoot products almost every week. I’m generally OK with this, because overall it’s fun and creative. The fun and creativity, however, get sucked out of the project when we aren’t given enough time to prepare or recuperate from the last video shoot. When we first started with these things, it seemed like we were shooting maybe once a week. Now we’re up to three videos, three days in a row. We’re even shooting without a script. Granted, it’s not that big of a deal since we already know what parts of the products need to be shown, but having a script would definitely help with the editing afterwards.
Anyway, by the end of the third video shoot last week, I was beat, especially since I had only gotten about three hours of sleep the night before, having come from the Lady Gaga event at Apple Lounge.
The Club Scene
Bars and clubs are really not my thing for multiple reasons. First, I don’t drink. This is unfortunate since so many of the events I get to cover have an open bar. Second, I don’t dance. More to the point, I can’t dance. I don’t have any rhythm and I feel like a fool when I attempt to dance. Also I’ve had a few emotionally scarring moments related to dancing. So I end up just standing typically in one place until the event is over. Third, interaction with other people only brings me joy when it’s on an intelligent level, which usually means conversation. Regrettably, the loud thump-thump of the bass turns all conversation into screaming matches or awkward moments of searching each others faces for help in understanding the last thing said before the club music rushed it away. This is inevitably followed by unsure, polite half-nods and immediate breaking of eye contact to see who else you could talk to. That’s when you realize how slim the pickings are for a real connection, because everyone around are either pretentious hipsters or are too involved with managing text messages or updating their Facebook status on their phones. Yet, despite all of these unappealing facets of the club scene, I still had a good time covering the Lady Gaga event.
Well, to be accurate, it was a Star Magazine event that just so happened to feature Lady Gaga. For the most part, I really did just stand around and observe. Occasionally, I had to sharpen my elbows on a few people that tried to dislodge me from my spot in passing, but the reason I had a good time was because of Lady Gaga. As soon as she hit the stage, the crowd stood in rapt attention and every other arm shot into the air holding one kind of recording device or another. In my coverage of the Star Magazine event, I describe the scene as “a forest of arms” which I don’t think is far from the truth.
Then the bass kicked in. The sound mixer must have turned that sucker up to 11 because the low levels refused to be absorbed and just cut through everything, like an explosion. I could literally feel the sound moving through me. In the future, someone will pioneer a radical medical treatment that can obliterate tumors through bass, because when I left I felt like I had just undergone a full-body massage. I was also partially deaf and discovered that I was yelling my questions to the PR people outside, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
The reason I had a good time was because the crowd was in unison in enjoying the performance. Once Lady Gaga started singing, everyone stopped whatever they were doing to watch. No cell phones. No conversation. Nothing. Then when Lady Gaga commanded that everyone scream or jump or sing, everyone did. It was great! It’s the same feeling I have when I’m at the movie theater with a packed audience and the movie is so good that everyone laughs and cheers and claps at the right moments despite themselves. If I had been at Apple Lounge on a social basis, I could have easily lost myself to the crowd. Alas, I have too much composure to let that happen, but I still walked away feeling glad that I had gone. Next time I’ll bring earplugs.
Happy Birthday Euclid
Now that I’m close to paying off all of my credit card debt, I figure that it’s time to upgrade the ol’ PC. I’m thinking of getting the Intel i7 quad core processor. It’ll be the low-end model since the price differences between the low-, middle and high-end models are outrageous. I’m also swapping out my motherboard for a newer Asus board. When it comes to building your own rig, I think Asus has the user-friendly thing down. Anyway, I’ll let you all know when it’s up and running. I only mention this here, because I may be incommunicado for a while depending on how well my upgrade goes.