Lady GaGa: When Your Product is YOU.

I am taking a break from social and political op-eds to focus on another phenom. I ran across Lady Gaga's new perfume ad for her fragrance "Fame." Of course it would be foolish to think that anything Lady Gaga related would follow the traditional format, least of all a perfume ad. None the less with her trademark originality she did not fail to deliver. One would think it would be hard to top herself at this point, and many would think she should have run out of steam by now but she remains in the spotlight on and on the charts certifying her staying power.
The ad itself could be described like most of her work, needlessly disturbing, both the long and short version of it leaves the viewer in shock and awe not quite sure of what they just saw, its the closest experience you will ever have to being a deer caught in head lights. But this is how Lady Ga works.
She has been dubbed a Madonna knock off, but I'd like to say that she has gone much further then Madge ever dared to and I doubt that Gaga can transform as effortlessly as Madge has over the decades (that's right people she has been a new person EVERY decade.)
Lady Gaga like Madonna has become her own trademark but the comparison stops there. For her music is art and art is herself so therefor she is musical art ( you got that right?) Everything is a far out deranged interpretation of her own experience so she much more along the lines of a self loathing artist fishing for compliments at there own gallery minus the hatred for people who don't understand.
For our generation she represents all the awkward perversion we have been force fed for the last 30 years and all of it comes pouring out in her songs that focus on sex and sexuality in all its forms.
Yes it is shocking but only because we are used to everything being sent to us subliminally. Ads are always selling values, dreams, and fantasies but most of all they sell you the idea that if you by there product you will somehow be better for it. Lady Gaga does the same only she gives you the pure unfiltered version. Perfume ads sell seduction she will sell you sex. If they sell you an idea of fame she will sell you the real image of fame and all while strutting in impossibly high heels dressed in skin tight pleather.

Epiphany

Brienne Guirantes
Professor Khan
ENG 101 AB Honors
Sep 29, 2008

Epiphan

    Life is a trial by error sort of thing. It does not come with a pamphlet or a cheat sheet telling you what and how to go through it. Most of the time life doesn’t make sense and even when it does, the answers don’t seem to click until after the problem has resolved itself. However, there a few great moments in our lives when the light bulb turns on and we have a clear concise understanding of the mysteries of life. This we call the Epiphany.

    Films are something of a masterpiece as a viewer there is so much information being feed to us unconsciously that it is hard for us to imagine the work that goes into it consciously. I love films. So when the opportunity to spend 15 weeks at NYU’s Tisch School Future Filmmakers Workshop presented itself I took it. It was four months of strictly filmmaking with lectures from editors, filmmakers, and writers who worked in the industry. For a kid like me who only watched films and never laid my hand on a camera, this was like heaven on earth. The only catch was that every film we made could not have sound. Why? You may be asking. The reasoning was simple in there minds, we lacked the time or experience to really understand the importance of sound in movies. We were told that in undergraduate school we would spend a whole semester learning about sound itself. Now this put up a block on everyone’s creative flow, for sound was a pivotal part of movies themselves. We were left to focus only on the visual aspect of our films which we needed to perfect to compensate for lack of sound and dialogue.

    I being who I am found this to be annoying and felt that there was too much drama placed on something as trivial as sound. Really think about it, you just point a mic and make sure that whatever is recorded is clear and there it is…sound. You didn’t need a semester to learn that. It was just a ploy to make sound technicians feel more important than they really were.

    One day I was walking from the store on my way home. I walked along Westside Avenue, one of the busiest streets in the city. People shouting children giggling, car horns beeping. Every sound that can and could pollute the air was on that street. I turned onto Gifford and as I hit the corner…there was complete and utter silence. Nothing not even the beating of my heart or the sound of my own breath not even the sound of my own thoughts. Just silence. It loomed and produced such fear that I thought I had gone deaf in a moment. Suddenly the trees blew softly and the sound of air brushing against dead leaves was sharp. It started out soft the built up. Then the leaves ran across the concrete hard as if they carried the weight of the world on there stems. It scratched and screeched. Then the car horns started to seep into the medley dull and bellowing. And all was as it used to be.

    I stood still in disbelief, numb, from what I had just experienced. It was as if the world made sense and I had the answer to life. It was beyond knowing the magic of sound or even its importance, no. I understood it now I knew sound, I touched it that day, I caressed its cheek and held its hand, and in return it shared its secrets, its purpose, its soul. Sound evokes emotion, Sound perpetrates thought, Sound is not just a boom, or a bang. It is rage it is sorrow, it is laughter and in its absence it is fear.

    My epiphany went far beyond that moment and it transcended to a greater plain of thought. If we would stop to listen, life will show us the way, and true meaningful lessons are taught everywhere we just must be willing to learn. It took the absence of sound to realize the purpose of life.

Gun Control. Really?

It seems that in the face of any disaster, a policy is brought fourth. It is natural to ensure that certain events are never repeated and any attempt to ensure the safety of people should be first and foremost. But the recent chain of mass shootings, in particular the shootings in Sandy Hook, CT. seem to be used as means to throw into the limelight calls for gun control.
I'd like to make it clear that I am not for or against gun control, I believe people have the right to own guns so long as they operate them responsibly,  but it seems that every tragedy that involves guns is skewed to make it seem as if people are buying guns willy nilly and that because they are they pose a risk to the population.
It is amazing that in most cases, guns were obtained lawfully, they weren't bought on the streets or across the border, the were registered with the owner and bought with clean money. With that being said there would be a need to make tighter laws to restrict guns. Now if these perpetrators followed the rules and lawfully bought a gun what will stop them from doing it again?  The only thing that could really stop someone would be some sort of psychological exam that they must pass but that would require them to see a doctor first and to require someone to do so would be unlawful in itself.
The problem isn't the laws. The problem is the fact that sometimes very very bad things happen and no matter how many laws we put in place it won't change the fact that these things are out of anyones real control.

Obama: The First and Last

I read a recent op ed piece that was about how Michelle Obama should spend her last term as first lady. Among a great many points made a sentence jumped from the page.  Under the bullet point of suggesting she "acknowledge race", the author said that the president was the first black president and that there would most likely not be another one for some time.

President Obama undoubtably has spent most of his term and even political history as a living symbol, for the entire country. For many he is the living breathing embodiment of every endeavor towards equality. For others a new social awareness, change, and evolution. For some he is proof of how far we have come as Americans. And for so many who thought that they would never see a black president in their lifetime he is hope.
With all this in mind, the thought of another presidential elect more specifically a black presidential elect seems a hard feat. Sure he has paved the way but how many can actually follow the path. As one tries to think of any successor the list seems short if not non existent, leaving only room to list the many reasons why he is a success.
Obama is from any of his predecessors, this is obvious, but what defines him is the fact that he can see the country as a whole. With almost every other african american politician running for president they put racial issues the first and foremost. Their entire political platforms seemed to revolve around helping the african american community. There is nothing wrong with this, in fact it it is admirable seeing the many disadvantages that african americans face, the flaw in this though lies in the fact that this country is not just made up of one type of person and to only appeal to one excludes everyone else. This tactic isolated them from a larger demographic simply because they didn't address any other groups issue. No appeal made to women, no new plan for farmers struggling to stay afloat, no fresh take on how to close the gap between the rich and poor or rescue the middle class.
Obama did not make race the foundation of his campaign, he didn't pretend he wasn't black, but he went so far as to come from a space of empathy which transcended any race, age, or social class. He became a jack of all trades and the heaviest weapon he has maintained in his arsenal is the fact that he can relate and very few politicians black or white have ever been able to accomplish that.

How “The Customer is Always Right” is Wrong.

Having spent a great deal of my youth in retail I can honestly say its just about the hardest work imaginable. No it doesn’t take a neurosurgeon to do it but it takes a large amount of something that has become a dying art...PATIENCE. 

As consumers we are told on a daily basis that we can have it our way and sure when we go to spend our hard earned money we like to be treated nicely but in the long run it has produced a society of inconsiderate drones. 

The holiday season proves this point. When going through countless stores I see tons of fellow shoppers shop as if they were a four year old flower girl throwing petals at the wedding guests instead of the aisle. Apparel is carelessly thrown around, shuffled through and left atop a pile for no other reason then the fact that they know that someone will fix it.
In an attempt to market to everyone and make the sale we have come up with the ever popular slogan "The Customer is Always Right" but all it has done it to create consumers who are like spoiled toddlers who kick scream and cry whenever they don't get there way. It always makes me laugh when I see a parent who gets upset with there child for not picking up after themselves but wlll in turn walk through a store like her child. Even worse is this blatant disregard when a sales associate is within arms reach, who is clearly trying to maintain the appearance of the display or section of apparel and a customer will undo all of there hard work.

These behaviors are never taken in our own personal lives, why is it that collectively they are thrown out the window once we have decided to buy something. And, how is the saying that the customer is always right protecting anyone other than the customer. In fact it is doing nothing but breeding contempt between the relationship the employee has with the customer. Turning a job into a grin and bear situation, and causing customers distrust associates.