Sebastian Murphy

I mean, this is an ad…. for a doctor’s clinic in Chicago, yet they use their basketball team’s mascot to make it a memorable experience watching this ad. I mean, Benny is hilarious and I don’t even follow/care about the Chicago Bulls, I’ve never watched one of their games nor have I ever seen Benny in anything else but this video I happened upon on Reddit. The ad works, it works because of the illusion they keep up that Benny is just this unknown kind of creature and they use it to display all the facilities they have. I mean they show one of those no-grav running things, a full physio, a complete gym, radiology department… And the thing is… you don’t even notice it, and that’s what makes good advertising- when you don’t know you’re being advertised to. 

“Make connections and give your mate a dollar to use his song” is the most important message I retained from this week’s ‘lectorial’ (ok seriously it was a lecture can we stop pretending it’s also a tut, I just sat and listened to people speak for 2 hours THAT IS A LECTURE). Copyright, as interesting as it is, is also pretty damn important. I mean I can’t post anything to YouTube without it being pulled down for ‘infringing copyright’, SoundCloud constantly bombards you with ‘take-down’ notices for the exact same thing; even though in both, I’ve credited the artist, and I’m not making money for the use of the song… so what’s the issue? The issue is that record companies are stupid, annoying, infuriating, and love to get in the way of anything original. Cheers corporations! At least Australia is a bit more relaxed in terms of copyright- except when it comes to Men At Work.

But I think the quote is pretty great (from Rachel), because I’m keen to use my mates’ music, keen to spread their music to strangers’ ears. Plus, it’s important to make connections where and when possible, and musicians are generally pretty awesome people. So fuck yeah, student inter-relations FTW!

Upon presenting my lo-fi self-portrait to my group of peers I felt a bit odd, a little uncomfortable, a wee bit squeamish… I’m not an introvertive person, I’m not someone who fears the public domain; but having others critique your work can be unsettling. I openly and freely accept criticism, we all need it in order to improve our work. It’s the fact that this is a ‘self’-portrait that makes me feel such a way; because in order to create the portrait we have to have a certain degree of insight into our own identity- both how others see us and we see ourselves.

That’s rather…….personal tbh…. I don’t particularly want people to glimpse that side; but that’s part of media, or is it? Are we expected to live our entire lives underneath the scrutiny of the public eye? Am I in the Truman Show? (Existential question ikr). I don’t think self-portraits were a very good first assignment, I realise they were just trying to get us to get to know each other, but it exposes too much too soon. I’ve had two tutorials with these people I don’t need them in my head thanks.

Hence, the hi-fi self-portrait is going to be pretty fun…. yay….

So upon beginning my entry into noticing the world I happened upon an ad hanging in the windows of Gap, it showed a male (dressed in a cardigan) with the tagline ‘Dress Normal’. To say the least, I was absolutely disgusted. ‘Normal’?! Gap, please define this normality in which you speak of. Do you mean… dress like everyone else and have no sense of personal identity? To just dress in plain matte colours and blend in? Is that the message a clothing brand should be communicating to its audience? To embrace genericality.

Personally, I attempt the opposite in my choice of clothing. I don’t want to dress ‘normal’ I want to dress in clothes I think look awesome and stand out a bit. Clothing is a piece of our identity, it is how we illustrate our true self to the world; whether you’re a goth in all black leather pants or a hipster in purple leggings, it’s how you demonstrate your individuality.

I hate UNIQLO for the exact same reason. The same cuts of clothing litter the store, simple geneic sweaters, shirts, tees, puffy vests all in the same range of ~20 bland, boring, dull colours. Walking in there I felt physically ill to the point of an increasing sense of anxiety and claustrophobia. The store reeks of boredom and lack of style, individuality and….character… it’s sterile, clinical and sickening. Most people are forced to wear a suit/tie to work, yet even in that they have plenty of range to choose from, plenty of funky patterns and colours; so why embrace a universal uniform that tells everyone “HEY, I’M BORING”, where’s the fun in that?

This lectorial detailed the ‘art of noticing’, which is basically opening your eyes and looking around you at things that are going on. Now I’m not sure about you, but I’m a details person; I notice the little things. Hence, this lectorial was useless to me as I already reach beyond just ‘noticing’.

You can look at things and know they’re media, but to truly notice, you’ve got to see what the media itself is trying to do. The Corona ad is a relaxed and chilled out tropical background with a guy (wearing a fedora) sipping on his Corona. Corona= relaxing, Corona= tropical, Corona= sexy.

So, the article we read told us to merely notice what is around us, not what it is actually trying to make us feel, believe, suggest or sell.

OK so I don’t usually like reality TV, not at all, but for some reason I am drawn to The Block.

For those of you who’ve never watched, The Block follows (usually 4) teams as they renovate a crappy run-down pile of poo and make it sparkly and pretty. It’s filmed in Melbourne and is really great at endorsing all the tradies and giving them some publicity as well as showing off Aussie designs.

But it’s the comedy factor that is great, the banter between the lads (who are mostly tradies themselves) and the gags. I mean there was just an entire 5 minutes dedicated to the incident where a tiler took a dump in the toilet that wasn’t hooked up.

I mean… who hasn’t been in that situation… you’re at your girlfriend’s parents’ house or something and you’re busting to drop a deuce. Your stomach is cramping. That lil baby is prairie doggin’

 Seen how those little fellas pop in and out? That’s your turd. And it’s a comin’… you’re squirmin’… and to top things off you’re at your girlfriend’s parents’ place for dinner the first time and you’re goddamn nervous. OK so you excuse yourself because you’re literally going to shit yourself and you run to the toilet, you lay that TP down in the water as to silence that badboy that’s been brewin’ and you try and push without letting out a deafening fart, flushing 3-4 times as to minimize the strong manly scent oozing from that giant load you just layed. But she’s stuck in there… won’t go down the hole… you’re panicking, absolutely and entirely panicking. Each time you flush it just sticks its head back up, and that’s one big bad boy rollin’ around in there. What do you do? WHAT DO YOU DO?!?!??!!??

Laugh uncontrollably. 

See, now that’s a smart move by The Block, poo gags always get the laughs, and it’s like that throughout. Not only do you learn design tips for your new bedroom in a basement warehouse in Footscray Southwest but you also have a good ol’ laugh whilst you’re watching, that’s important in Aussie TV, to just not take yourself too seriously and have a bit of a laugh. This is why The Castle was such an amazing success as a film, why Steven Curry is my bloody idol; because put a tinny in your stubby holder, crack that beast and chuck some snags on a bloody barby. 

#straya