I can't escape!

So what is this, day 5 now? And it's taken me this long to realize that it's virtually impossible to escape all mindless media when living in the city. Cities are loud organisms. It reminds me of a loudmouth babbler who can talk for hours without saying much of importance, and even if they did, it would be too hard to notice. There are so many people trying to sell us one message or another. How are we supposed to know which ones are worth our time and which ones are just undressing our wallets with their eyes?


It helps to be media savvy but even the media is getting savvy. For example, the discovery of the iPhone 4G (or so they thought it would be called) at the bar in April.





Since it's discovery, people were buzzing left and right about how this legendary and highly anticipated new gadget by Apple was left behind by an anonymous, careless Apple employee. According to the story when the lucky person found the prototype, they tried contacting Apple who denied that it was a real prototype. It wasn't until the buzz flared that Apple decided they wanted it back. Of course by then it was already in the hands of Gizmodo.com a gadget reviewer. Call me a skeptic, but in my opinion, it's a little convenient that this prototype ended up in the hands of an online gadget reviewer. I mean, what better way to market a product than to make it seem like they didn't even try. It's got that cool kid effect.


Apple, has an amazing team of designers, marketers and advertisers, but at this point I find it hard to imagine that anyone could come up with a more successful marketing campaign for the product. Picture this: a dozen crisp Apple executives brainstorming around a slick black table in a clean white room with large spotless glass windows, and ceilings for days. One of them has a Eureka moment and bursts out: "Why don't we pretend that someone 'accidentally' leaves it at a bar?" The best stories seem to take place, start or are told at a bar anyway, right? And let's face it, anything that big, despite it's authenticity would be viral in mere moments. Ads and web banners are one in a trillion, they simply get overlooked because we train ourselves to be selective and ignore the masses. On the other hand, word of mouth can spread like wild-fire, goes hand-in-hand with YouTube and people gorge on news like this as if it was carbs. Everybody wins, Apple gets their publicity, Gizmodo's name is associated with Apple, the product's specs and features reach an international level without a single cost and none's the wiser. This is all just speculation of course, and there is a greater than large chance that none of this is true, but can you imagine how brilliant it would be if it were?

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In other news, today was my first day on the TTC since my TV/music fast. It wasn't nearly as unbearable as previous misfortunes of forgetting my headphones or having dead batteries. This is most likely due to the fact that I've had time to adjust and, it was self-induced. Stringing together to do lists, and short-term goals weren't as frequently interrupted with sudden internal outbursts of my favorite medleys, but needless to say, my A.D.D is far from cured. I did find myself slightly agitated by the clicking noise that seemed to be coming from the engine (should I have been worried?), and though normally I would simply tune it out with music, since that was no longer an option, I tested my patience. After a while, I found myself intrigued and would try and find the pattern or cause (admittedly, quite a nerd thing to do :)).


On the way home however, a rider at the back of the bus found a need to share his music with the rest of the passengers. My immediate thought was, "How considerate of him to share." -- Since sarcasm often goes undetected in writing, please note it's intended presence. Is it really necessary to play your music on speakers in a shared space? Better yet, is it fair? It's often hard to find a large group of random people with the same taste in music. With the invention of built-in compact speakers in most media players, broadcasting personal music has become a common occurrence. At the same time I didn't get a good look, so it could've easily also been really loud headphones. Don't mind my hypocrisy here however. I do remember a time when I too wanted the strangers around me to know exactly what I was listening to though I'm not certain why. What's even more comedic is how I would frantically try and "unhold" so I could skip to the next song or turn down the volume because an embarrassing guilty pleasure like Toxic by Britney Spears was the next random tune. I was naive and maybe it was the ghetto blaster culture that had me believe that my choice of music should be known by a bunch of strangers who couldn't care less. I'm proud to say I grew out of that years ago, I simply valued my hearing a lot more.

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An awesome Graffiti piece I found yesterday in Chinatown, and my awesome friend Teri :). I love that it was of a Tiger just like our chinese zodiac. I think there were some other zodiacs too like the dragon. I will go back with my real camera and take better photos soon.


Coming up next...


A disturbing article I read on the way home today: A Condom with Teeth
psycho-killer, qu'est-ce que c'est...
I shall detail it tommorrow.