Meet Chicken John -- Do What He Says?
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Advertising Is Pollution
I had an idea once. About billboards. I get insulted easily. So, for me, these quirky smarty pants ads that we get here in SF annoy me. So I has this idea, see... we could start a group of people who detest billboard advertising. And pool our money, buy all the billboards and put shitty art on them instead. I worked it out. It would cost 40,000 of us $40 a month. To me, there is nothing more inspiring than shitty art. To be constantly reminded that you can do better. $40 a month... that's what you pay to not go to the gym... or half as much as these overpriced underground restaurants that pretend to serve foraged food. Isn't that the world you wanna live in? It got me thinking... that I would be more inclined to buy something if I had never heard of the brand. Like, if I see it on the shelf and that particular brand hadn't polluted my vision as of yet. Sure. I'd buy that one. Hell, I'd even pay more. I will pay more for a laundry soap that doesn't' work as good that I've never heard of. But it's not really about money... it's about having or doing something that everyone else isn't having. Or doing. These little magical things that simply... do... not... scale. You can't ramp them up. They can't be mass produced. Like what? You want examples? OK. How about the Audium.
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| The Audium |
Here is my recommendation: go for a long walk ending at 1616 Bush street at 8:15 on a rainy Friday or Saturday evening. Bring a friend. Or your mom. Or my mom. Listen to the program. Leave the theatre and go find 100 different ways to listen to rain. Get drunk. Deface a billboard.
And also, on a totally other subject about what you should do, what was the formula Malcolm Gladwell used? 10,000 hours? If you put the time in, you're an expert. Kinda puts a chill in the air. Like what if you put your 10 grand into being a bum or washing cars? Or being a chronic masturbator? The mind reels ... we're talking about experts today because in our society everyone who has access to the Internet is an expert on anything. From string theory to string cheese to string quartets; the machine will point you to all the information that other people have written down. But what if they're wrong? Misguided? Religious freaks? Plain evil? Or worse: What if they're pranksters looking to clothe you in the fool suit? People always say they're "environmentalists." As in, they're passionate about the "environment" - I've never understood it. Ecology, yes. You can love our ecology. But how can you love an environment? Well if ya wanna go see experts talk about our ecology, this Thursday you'll drive your car to the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland and bear witness to a film by Rikki Ott called: Black Wave -- The Legacy of the Exxon Valdez.
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This is a good show. This is what shows are supposed to be. Shows are supposed to elicit a reaction... an emotional reaction. If you go to this show, you should feel like a fraud. A hypocrite. Are you really doing enough? Are you committing to the politics of the world you wanna live in? Or are you like me, and just make fun of everyone? I'm an expert at making fun of people. The person who made that film is an expert on making that film. They put in their 10,000 hours. So what if they're a squishy liberal ... master craftspeople in all disciplines are to be appreciated.
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Location Info
Venue
Audium-Theatre of Sound-Sculptured Space
Map
Audium-Theatre of Sound-Sculptured Space
1616 Bush (at Franklin), San Francisco, CA
Category: General
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