Another Queer Jewish Buddhist

Boycott Amazon: Take action against censorship of LGBT Titles

A few minutes ago I was about to post a link to a book to a friend on Facebook — at Amazon. But in my newsfeed, writer Lawrence Schimel had a link to a story about Amazon removing the sales rankings for many lgbt titles from another writer. And he went to check his own books (many of which I own and love) and found that indeed, the rankings were gone.

Schimel linked to a blog entry by Mark R. Probst, in which he posts a response from Amazon that I find completely unacceptable.

I will not link to books sold by Amazon here again, and I will no longer buy online from them. I urge everyone to do the same and to make your decision known to Amazon along with the reason why.

In New York City, this is all the more chilling a development considering the recent closing of the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop. The gay "community" may not remember a time when finding queer titles was difficult if not impossible. And we must be watchful for corporate bigotry and censorship.

The growing list of titles with their ranking stripped reads like the usual list of books people try to ban. It's very disturbing.

Advertising and the Mating Call

Recently, a Canadian "dating" website started running an ad campaign that is less about the romance. After all, so many dating websites are really about hookups — this site simply dispenses with any of the romantic imagery and cuts to the chase. Clearly their competition is not e-harmony. Of course, given that Craig's List is free, I'm not sure what the market for this is. I will say the campaign is equal opportunity, without shying away from queer sex. And that in itself is worth comment, even if this is a site I wouldn't want to sign up for.

Then, there was the on site marketing in straight bars....

So much for the art of seduction.

The power of coalition politics vs. the "new gay movement 2.0"

JoeMyGod today reported on State Senator Diaz issuing a statement of support for Rick Warren. He then quoted one of our supposed new leaders, Jeff Campagna, of the Facebook group The Power as saying:

"As the leader of the movement to call on Diaz and his cronies to be good Democrats and to support their party's takeover of the New York State Senate, I'm disgusted to hear that Diaz is now using Rick Warren's invitation to the invocation as evidence that bigots like himself are welcome at the table."

Sorry, this is where facebook groups and silent protests fail. As a way to get out information fast, Facebook can't be beat. As a way to canvas a new generation, terrific. But who cares about Rick Warren, who actually affects no legislation in NYC. Diaz is the target, and to just ask people to write Change.gov about Warren is waste of time. There are a lot of big names attached to The Power group. I know they are doing more, and want to work smarter than this.

For example, ESPA has built a coalition with unions whose members live in the district Diaz represents -- because they understand that it's not just about us, it's about workers. So Elizabeth Benjamin at the Daily News reports that:

...some 8,000 Bronx members of 32BJ will receive direct direct mail pieces targeting two of the so-called Gang of Three - Senator-elect Pedro Espada Jr. and Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr. - in an effort to crank up pressure on the dissidents to come back to the Democratic fold and back Malcolm Smith for majority leader.

The mailers, which are in both English and Spanish, are part of a wider campaign by a number of labor interests that were instrumental in helping the Senate Democrats win a majority of seats this fall for the first time since 1965 and don't want to see the fruits of their labor scuttled by three renegades.

Other union members of this pro-Democrat alliance include: Unite-HERE/ New York Hotel Trades Council, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union and the Communications Workers of America.

All will be sending mail to their respective members to "prioritize a progressive agenda which puts the agenda of working families ahead of their own," according to 32BJ spokesman Eugenio H. Villasante.

Yep, we've got unions, strong unions, working with us. Because we have joint goals and a partnership that has been nurtured over time. This is what went wrong in California -- there was no outreach to minority communities or working class people. This is activism as narcissism. If you don't find common cause with people, then they sure aren't going to be there when you need them.

I may have worked on Madison Avenue for the last 30 years, but I come from lower middle class Brooklyn. And I know the power of unions, coalition building and simple door to door, face to face organizing. You don't get that from a Facebook group. Yeah, I know, I am old school. Or just old. But the web is only one tool in the arsenal. If you forget that you actually have to reach out to real people, they won't see us or our cause as real.

Yeah, a facebook group can fill a street full of people who are angry real fast-- people who can carry placards and march. But then what do you do? To quote Joan Baez singing about Joe Hill: organize.

Porn for the blind? Now I've heard everything.

Describing itself as a " not-for-profit organization dedicated to producing audio descriptions of sample movie clips from adult web sites" this bizarre little site offers an odd selection based supposedly on requests from, uh, listeners. See, uh, hear for yourself.
 

Thanks to Digicynic.wordpress.com

qwerty oops! wild keyboards from cio magazine

Esther Schindler has written a great story about some wild keyboards over at CIO Magazine, starting with the de rigueur Steampunk keyboard, which inspires my consumerist lust. However, there are some other hot new items, including the Bluetooth virtual keyboard, which is not only wireless, but really, keyboardless, since the letters are projected onto a surface. Then there is the hyper-ergonomic kinesis keyboard. All, however, are qwerty keyboards except for the Optimus Maximus, which uses an LCD display that can be customized for each key, making it useful for any language or symbol set, or enabling you to position the keys exactly where you want them: qwerty, dvorak, abcd or your own invention. As long as I can use my typewriter keyboard software — which mimics the sound of using an old Remington and available free from alphaomega software — as I hit the keys, I am happy.

How to compute your age in ad-years: new site

I am horrified, and not surprised at all, to discover that according to this site I am 133 years old. This very funny quiz is a snobbish look at what makes a career. So that by adding years in direct marketing or in pharma advertising you add on decades to your age. I remember an old colleague saying that pharma is where you go in your career to die. Of course, this was from someone in direct, who hated being looked down on by the snotty boys in brand advertising. Go ahead if you dare, learn you age in ad years.It's the self promotion brainchild of a writer/art director team. Of course. It could only be an inside job.

When I started years ago at Compton (swallowed up by a boutique firm they owned a share in called Saatchi) there was a story about an account guy who had worked on Cunard's Queen Elizabeth cruise ship advertising for 10 years. Then he was transferred to Alpo. When asked how he felt about the switch to dog food, he replied "It's all dog food."

A funny and sad story. But for this copywriter, it's all about play. If you can't approach a creative assignment as a puzzle that's fun to solve, you don't belong in the business. Or that particular piece of business. No matter the discipline or the channel.

The Interrobang: Americans Are Torturing Prisoners At Gitmo?!?!

No, the interrobang is not a new style of violent interrogation akin to waterboarding. It is a punctuation mark created by a real Mad Man, advertising executive Martin K. Speckter in 1962. A combination of the question mark and exclamation point, it is used at the end of a sentence to convey astonishment, disbelief or to ask a rhetorical question.

The word itself comes from a combination of the printer’s jargon for the question mark “the interrogation point” and the exclamation point — the “bang.” Unfortunately, the use of an interrobang at the end of the question in the headline is appropriate, since the fact that we are torturing prisoners is astonishing, unbelievable, and unfortunately true as Jane Mayer's appalling book, “The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals,” proves beyond a doubt. Perhaps we will read a headline that ends with an interrobang someday that says "Bush Administration Officials Arrested For War Crimes!?"

Speckter's new punctuation mark never caught on, even though Specter used it in ads his agency created for accounts like The Wall Street Journal. Seems much more appropriate to use for a tabloid though.

It actually appeared on a typewriter (not however the Hermes model used by Douglas Adams that is currently up for auction) in the 60s. It was on a Remington that I’d like to add to my collection of Empires, Royals, Olivettis, Hammonds, Olivers, Smiths and Franklins. (Yes, I am afflicted with the collecting bug, and as a writer, typewriters speak to me.

And typographers include it with some fonts. It’s even available on many computers. On a Mac, four different versions can be found in the wingdings 2 font. Simply hit the ` ~ key, the ] } key, the 6 ^ key, or the - _ key and you'll be able to add this unusual punctuation to your documents.

I have to say, I don’t like the use of it in advertising. It’s kind of cheap, like the star burst, which is hated by creatives and loved by clients everywhere. In fact, a rather amusing ad was posted today to adsoftheworld by an agency in Columbia that addressed just this issue of the star burst. You can see it below — it adds to my collection of print ads that use a toilet as the location of the action.

However, I do think the interrobang works well in comic books, and one typographer has created a variation of the interrobang for the Fritz font that I like very much, seen at right. And I do think the more traditional(!) interrobang works well in a tabloid. Both are less formal venues. Which brings me to this venue: while the interrobang exists in some Unicode fonts, I can’t seem to be able to use it here except as a graphic. Too bad.

Then there is the symbol that appears almost entirely on the web: the copyright question mark. I have yet to determine its proper use though. Unlike copyleft, which offers up the usage of the material for non-profit use with proper attribution, I assume the copyright question mark is used when a web publisher uses material of uncertain copyright status, and wishes to make that known.

So what would a copyright interrobang mean?

The Plight of the Bumblebee: Viral Ad Campaign That Leaves A Bitter Taste

Häagen Dazs has placed an entertaining if somewhat long video on YouTube to drive viewers to a site about the urgent problem of colony collapse and mass die-offs of bees.

The die off is just another sign that we are destroying our environment, and that the system that supports our own food chain is in serious danger. But that’s not why I bring up the campaign.

As an advertising creative, I get frustrated when an interesting and fun idea to publicize an important issue is ruined by poor user experience. Just another sign that the social network environment is being polluted by poorly thought through work.

At least the video is fun. But if you decide to go to the site, helpthehoneybee.com it’s first and foremost a site for Häagen Dazs, that requires yet another click to if you want to do something to help.  So once you click again, you get another introductory screen, no product this time, but you still have to click again to “join the mission.” To top it off, loading time is for the animation is slow and the show isn't worth the wait. But I waited for two reasons — first because the cause interests me. And of course out of professional intereste.

So finally we get to a page with bees in a field and a hive menu that takes yet another minute to reveal itself. Finally there is a choice that says “How You Can Help.” First time I click on it, all I get is an instruction to explore the meadow. Tells me that different plants and flowers are important. Stop the presses on this news. So I try the “How You Can Help” menu again.

This time it takes me to some copy that offers me a lesson plan (I didn’t see where this was directed to teachers, but okay) and several other paths to take: Plant a Seed, Donate, Help The Beekeepers, and Tell A Friend.

Seems donating might be something to do to help. Click there and you learn Häagen Dazs is giving money to two universities to study the problem. And you can too. Okay, so if you decide to donate to Penn State you’re sent to a Penn page that doesn’t refer to bees at all. You’re just giving money to the university. Not very satisfying. But you’ve taken a lot of time to learn that Häagen Dazs is giving money to solve this problem. They could have told me that at the end of the video. Well. What else?  Okay, if you click back on the main menu to learn what else they are doing they repeat the donation claim, and then mention their new ice cream flavor, Vanilla Honey Bee.

Tell A Friend? Here is at least a fun viral component where you get to design your own cool looking bee and send it to friends so they can learn Häagen Dazs is giving money on a slow and clunky site. Not very original, but cute nonetheless. Why do I feel Ben & Jerry would have done a better job?

Good idea. Lame execution. And I don't feel that I've helped the bees in any way. I feel I've taken a long time for a PR message. Not so sweet guys.

What's your type?

There was more than a flurry of activity today in the worldwide Yahoo group devoted to typewriter collecting. A story on BBC News about current sales of typewriters led with a visual of words on a page between a ribbon and the platen: To be continued...

The debate was simple — the words didn't look like they were typewritten at all. They had the smooth look of laser printing. Someone suggested it had been typed and then photo shopped to look this way.

Regardless, this typewriter collector was thrilled to hear there is still a factor in India somewhere turning them out. And that thousands still buy new typewriters in Japan, where the challenges of two syllabalaries and thousands of ideograms makes a traditional western typewriter useless. And just how does one spell syllabalary?

Agitated about gay men and washing machines...

Okay, I understand the desire to collect old machines. In the last year I fell down the ebay antique typewriter rabbit hole and have yet to emerge. In an small Manhattan apartment I have more than a dozen machines ranging from a Franklin circa 1892 to the typewriter that's part of the Museum of Modern Art's design collection — the Olivetti Lettera 22, circa 1959. But washing machines? I mean, it's true I've met some Speed Queens at the Saint but this?

Clearly you've got to live in the burbs. And permanently set on spin. I jest. Who am I to throw mud at people who are certainly just a little compulsive about cleanliness when I've gotten more than one shirt dirty with typewriter ribbons and oil. Over at Automaticwasher.org you can see just how serious these guys are. And most of them are indeed guys. And yes, many of them gay guys. Hey, when you can buy a detergent called Fab for camp value, collection value and stain removal I have to shut my lid. In fact, I really should come clean — I'd be happy to marry a man with a washing machine collection. If he could stand the ink stains.