Our Urban Odyssey » activism

Race is for the dogs, too!

Nova — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 22:24:55 +0000

Along the same lines of the Dove ad commentary, here is another ad, this one for doggies with ticks. It also trips itself up with human race messages. The campaign is called Pooch Protest (poochprotest.com).

http://www.petparents.com/show.aspx/k9-advantix-pooch-protest

Pure breed white lab with “all-American” voice leads the mutt herd on how to empower themselves against ticks. The good doggie example (who uses the tick brand) is a blond happy doggy. The one ravagaed with ticks is sad and brown, and horrible ticks are gnawing at his mangly coat.
No, not nuts here- these images add up!

Share on Facebook

Architectural Abominations of Gentrification

Nova — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 00:43:22 +0000

Grab your bag of popcorn and take a look at how the Upper West Side continues to gentrify and loose some of its character. Gone is the beloved Greek diner that stood here (which took in some previously displaced diner workers and patrons that were usurped by the Whole Foods construction a few blocks over) and up went this white plastic…. what the heck is it? “Hip apartments” of course, that fit oh so nicely with the rest of the neighborhood’s architecture.

Share on Facebook

Here we go again…

Nova — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 00:23:10 +0000

Thanks Dove! You’ve done some work on making women love their own unique body type. But this ad in People Magazine is a bit of a step backwards on loving your skin…color. Do you have someone of color on your marketing team that might have picked this up? Tired of being on the “before” end of skin tones, body size and hair type on improvement spectrums. Yes, it could very well not be your intention, but we see this all too often in media- the subliminal messages we get on what constitutes improvement. And too often people and cultures of color are placed on the “need of improvement” end. So you gotta watch the messages you send!

Share on Facebook

Lost Unicorn in the Heights

ouo — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 00:14:18 +0000

C-mixto submitted this photograph near Dyckman Street. It’s a poster looking for a Lost Unicorn, Unicornio Perdido… C-mixto, being a poet at heart and music fan, noticed it was printed on blue paper, and immediately wondered if the person who posted it is calling out for Silvio Rodriguez’s Unicornio. Ah C-mixto. Here are the lyrics in Spanish and English:

Mi Unicornio azul ayer se me perdió,
pastando lo dejé y desapareció.
Cualquier información la voy bien a pagar,
las flores que dejó, no me han querido hablar.

Mi Unicornio azul ayer se me perdió,
no sé si se me fue, no sé si se extravió.
Y yo no tengo más que un Unicornio azul.
Si alguien sabe de él, le ruego información,
cien mil o un millón yo pagaré.
Mi Unicornio azul se me ha perdido ayer,
se fue…

Mi Unicornio y yo hicimos amistad,
un poco con amor, un poco con verdad.
Con su cuerno de añil pescaba una canción,
saberla compartir era su vocación.

Mi Unicornio azul ayer se me perdió,
y puede parecer acaso una obsesión,
pero no tengo más que un Unicornio azul
y aunque tuviera dos, yo solo quiero aquel.
Cualquier información la pagaré.
Mi Unicornio azul se me ha perdido ayer,
se fue…

My blue unicorn, I lost it yesterday.
I left it grazing and it disappeared.
Any information, I will pay for it well.
The flowers that it left behind don’t want to talk to me.

My blue unicorn, I lost it yesterday,
I don’t know if it left me, or if it got lost,
and I don’t have but one blue unicorn.
If anyone’s got any news, I beg to hear them.
A hundred thousand or a million, I will pay.
My blue unicorn, I lost it yesterday,
it went away.

My unicorn and I became friends,
a little bit with love, a little bit with truth.
With its indigo horn it was fishing for a song
knowing how to share it was its calling.

My blue unicorn, I lost it yesterday,
and it may seem perhaps like an obsession
but I don’t have but one blue unicorn
and even if I had two I only wanted that one.
Any information, I will pay for it,
My blue unicorn, I lost it yesterday,
it went away.

http://www.translatum.gr/forum/index.php?topic=915.0#ixzz14ju4fUam

If you have seen this person’s unicorn, a number is posted on the flyer.

Share on Facebook

Ads that just might work…?

Nova — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 00:17:18 +0000

Washington Heights, Fort Washington Avenue, August 2010.

This is how to get your message across. Remind people of the problem and what you would like them to do about it, with few words (since the piles of shit in the street are not enough to remind you that hmmm… shit on the floor is not a very pleasant thing.. Unless, of course, it’s being used as fertilizer and you’re going to get better plants.) And let’s make an art piece out of our message! Unfortunately, it was too direct for some people, as the ass of the dog and his little pile were blacked out by the obscenity squad shortly after. Oh, and New York City’s got nothing on this issue compared to Buenos Aires. Shit-kabobs for heels, anyone?

Share on Facebook

Summer Book Rec: How to Be Idle

Nova — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 00:23:39 +0000

I am reposting something from last year because it’s summer (in the northern hemisphere) and your minds are more easily prone to indoctrination by this manifesto. Free your soul!

“I have a dream. It is called love, anarchy, freedom. It is called being idle.”

-Tom Hodgkinson

Share on Facebook

Urban Book Club Rec: A Confederacy of Dunces

Nova — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 00:17:31 +0000

This one was found by C-mixto. Highly recommended for the cynical, the nerdy, the intelligent, the social outcast- this book is comical with a healthy dose of chaos. It also has a halo of tragedy.

Share on Facebook

Ideas for the Greek Markets

Nova — Fri, 07 May 2010 01:24:31 +0000

So Greece is in a state of unrest… What are some brilliant ways we can fix this problem?

Start marketing frappes like you do Fage yogurt. This is an untapped market that can rival the Dunkin Donuts brand.
Become lifestyle consultants on how the rest of us can: drink crazy amounts of instant coffee, smoke like chimneys, lather ourselves with olive oil (not sun screen) and soak up the sun, f*ck like porn stars, argue ’til the veins pop out of our heads and still have one of the highest life-expectancies in the world. Here are some no-brainers: siestas are good. Loving life is good. Sun and sea… eh we all can’t have it all but it helps.
Become the next eco-gurus of Europe instead of one of its more infamous offenders.
Reclaim your agricultural roots, feed yourself first and then export what you want.
Keep working on your beautiful, neglected wines.
Forget credit cards, the stock-market and all other non-tangible nonsense.
Become a national consultant agency for how to strike, community organize and instill populations with a sense of advocacy.

Share on Facebook

On another travel note…

Nova — Sat, 01 May 2010 02:52:31 +0000

Tribeca, NYC April 2010

Another way to have an odyssey. Let the world move around you.

Share on Facebook

Household Census Wars

Nova — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 00:41:16 +0000

It’s Census Time, people. Time to assess what is in your house and how the government calls the things that live in your house.

Question 1 & 2… How many people live in the house.

Straight forward I suppose except if you had overnight party guests on the night of April 1st.

Question 3: Is this house, apartment, or mobile home–

Choice 4: Occupied without payment or rent? Is this what you check if you are a squatter?

Question 9. What is Person 1’s race?

Ahhh this is the fun and depressing one. I hearby invent Puerto Greekan as a race. For all I know we are an undercounted race that needs to stand up in the Census. Somebody please fix this race thing.

Questions 10: Does Person 2 sometimes live or stay somewhere else?

Dear Census Question 10:

Yes, indeed my husband, aka person 2 sometimes lives somewhere else. You see he has a double life. In clubs and events he disappears for minutes without a word. So as a patriot, I feel obliged to report this uncanny behavior. He probably is being counted in someone else’s household survey, so I wouldn’t want you to double count.

Wait there are only 10 questions?

Share on Facebook