Friday night, there's a slight chill outside as sixty-something CreComm students enter the Rachel Browne Theatre for a night of entertainment. Little did they know what they were in for.
This year, the In The Chamber series put out a show called Last Men. The show consisted of two pieces, the first, called The Last Man in Krakendorf, and the second, The Last Man in Puntarenas. Both pieces were one man performances, centered around men having an identity crisis.
The show begins with a peculiar and seemingly completely unrelated scene as we witness a couple in bed fighting over the covers which leads into one of the most awkward handjob scenes I could fathom. After about a minute and a half the "woman" exits the room and we see actor Steven Ratzlaff fighting a disembodied voice as he screams from the bed that he still has chaos in him.
The first play starred Gordon Tanner as a frustrated businessman as he works through confused feelings talking to a video camera. Tanner's character is going to send this video to his boss if he doesn't get arrested first and so the entire time he battles between not bothering to finish recording, and finishing in time.
Tanner delivers a passionate speech about the treatment of hogs on hog farms and about the business system in general, presenting us with the idea of a new and old system. Both systems consisted of sections, the old system; Who Fucked Up? You Fucked Up. You're Fired. and the new system consisted mainly of we all fucked up together, why did we all fuck up together, and what did you do to cause us all to fuck up together.
Another idea that Tanner offers us is one that his character claims to be the drive behind human error, it seemed like a good idea at the time.
Both funny points and well explained, however, after this point in the play Tanner slowly lost my attention.
In a well acted and interesting performance Tanner's energy doesn't let down once, but one can only take so much. The entire play was a monologue and after a while begins to sound preachy. I think it definitely could've been a little bit shorter and it would've been more successful.
The second performance starred Steven Ratzlaff, and to be totally honest that's probably the most I can tell you. Ratzlaff as well delivers a well acted monologue.. that seems to never end. He gets into terms far too complicated to continue to hold the attention of the average audience member. Ratzlaff is giving a speech to collegues at a sort of dinner party and can't seem to stay on topic or within the boundaries of typical politeness.
Ratzlaff talks about the loss of his son, as well as his wife leaving him and their relationship's deterioration. He talks, well, a lot really, and by the end of it all I wasn't really sure what exactly to take away from what I'd seen.
Both actors did a superb job performing, and their energy was fantastic, you could feel their words as they spoke, however, their words began to lose effect as we drew closer to an hour in each monologue. I wasn't a huge fan of the production, but I would have to say I would see those guys act in another play anyday.
Showing posts with label Assignment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Assignment. Show all posts
January 20, 2010
January 8, 2010
April Fools' from Taco Bell
After spending some time researching what one would call the pseudo-event, I have realized that I don't know what to believe anymore.
A pseudo-event in a nutshell is an event or stunt put on for the sole purpose of promoting something or someone.
I would have to say that from what I've seen so far in this field, Taco Bell seems to know what to do to get the public's eyes on them.
On April 1st, 1996, Taco Bell placed full page ads in 6 major American newspapers announcing that they had purchased the Liberty Bell renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell.
The ad read:
Taco Bell Buys The Liberty Bell
In an effort to help the national debt, Taco Bell is pleased to announce that we have agreed to purchase the Liberty Bell, one of our country’s most historic treasures. It will now be called the “Taco Liberty Bell” and will still be accessible to the American public for viewing. While some may find this controversial, we hope our move will prompt other corporations to take similar action to do their part to reduce the country’s debt.
In a press release, Taco Bell claimed that the bell would be dividing its time between Philadelphia and the Taco Bell headquarters in Irvine. Taco Bell compared their purchase to adoption of highways by corporations. Taco Bell's arguement was that they were “going one step further by purchasing one of the country’s greatest historic treasures.” The company continued, “Taco Bell’s heritage and imagery have revolved around the symbolism of the bell. Now we’ve got the crown jewel of bells.”
Later that day after being "hammered" by phone calls, the company issued a second press release admitting to the huge hoax and instead saying that they were donating 50,000 dollars towards the upkeep of the bell. According to Taco Bell’s marketing department, their sales increased by over half-a-million dollars during the week of April 1st, compared to the week before.
Success? I think so.
This isn't the only prank Taco bell has pulled.
You can read about this prank that Taco Bell pulled in 2001 here.
Crafty buggers.
A pseudo-event in a nutshell is an event or stunt put on for the sole purpose of promoting something or someone.
I would have to say that from what I've seen so far in this field, Taco Bell seems to know what to do to get the public's eyes on them.
On April 1st, 1996, Taco Bell placed full page ads in 6 major American newspapers announcing that they had purchased the Liberty Bell renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell.
The ad read:
Taco Bell Buys The Liberty Bell
In an effort to help the national debt, Taco Bell is pleased to announce that we have agreed to purchase the Liberty Bell, one of our country’s most historic treasures. It will now be called the “Taco Liberty Bell” and will still be accessible to the American public for viewing. While some may find this controversial, we hope our move will prompt other corporations to take similar action to do their part to reduce the country’s debt.
In a press release, Taco Bell claimed that the bell would be dividing its time between Philadelphia and the Taco Bell headquarters in Irvine. Taco Bell compared their purchase to adoption of highways by corporations. Taco Bell's arguement was that they were “going one step further by purchasing one of the country’s greatest historic treasures.” The company continued, “Taco Bell’s heritage and imagery have revolved around the symbolism of the bell. Now we’ve got the crown jewel of bells.”
Later that day after being "hammered" by phone calls, the company issued a second press release admitting to the huge hoax and instead saying that they were donating 50,000 dollars towards the upkeep of the bell. According to Taco Bell’s marketing department, their sales increased by over half-a-million dollars during the week of April 1st, compared to the week before.
Success? I think so.
This isn't the only prank Taco bell has pulled.
You can read about this prank that Taco Bell pulled in 2001 here.
Crafty buggers.
November 28, 2009
Twitter / Twih-Turr / noun
def. 1. A free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets.
2. What's Happening?
Twitter and I have been forced to co-exist with one another, and I have to say I still don't get what the fuss is about. I think what's left out of the definition, is that you must have a Twitter friendly phone in order to really benefit from Twitter.
I think it might take some time before I find some benefits of Twitter to talk about!!
2. What's Happening?
Twitter and I have been forced to co-exist with one another, and I have to say I still don't get what the fuss is about. I think what's left out of the definition, is that you must have a Twitter friendly phone in order to really benefit from Twitter.
I think it might take some time before I find some benefits of Twitter to talk about!!
October 27, 2009
STOP THAT! Before you rip ALL your hair out.!!
"I don't know what I want to write about!"
A phrase over used by many bloggers.
Why is it so hard to come up with a topic for our blogs? Inspiration is kinda hard to come by.
A blog is sometimes called an online diary, let's face it, anyone who keeps a diary, wouldn't likely post it on the internet without some alterations. We do try for some entertainment value, or at least educational purpose, so sometimes it can be REALLY hard to come up with ideas.
When we write blogs, most people have a subconscious filter that stops them from writing things embarrassing, incriminating, or just plain stupid. ..Because really now, do any of us really want to write bad things about ourselves?
Here's a list, Glenda style, of things I've learned about coming up with a topic to post about.
ONE: DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT, under any circumstances, GOOGLE for a post idea. Not only will you find a big fat load of nothing, do you really think you're the first person to Google for a blog idea? If it's out there on Google, it's been done to death, and chances are it's been done a lot better than you are gonna do it!
TWO: Read other blogs!! If you read other blogs, you can figure out what sort of topics you like and don't like reading about, it will help a lot when deciding what to write about. You can get a sense for what your style is and what is appealing to you when it comes to reading. If you really know your posting style, the ideas will fall into place. You can take something and mold it if you know what you want your end result feel like.
THREE: Let your mind wander, sans restraint! You might find that you've begun to think about what you want for dinner instead of blog post ideas, but that's how you get ideas! When you think of something and it interests you enough to say 'Hey, I wonder..' post about it! If you find yourself thinking about something excessively, make your internal conversation into a blog! Don't be afraid to think out loud on your blog. Sometimes your posts may take you in a direction you weren't intending on going in, and it might surprise you to see just what your mind comes up with. If it doesn't fit with your theme now, fit it in later, alter it after you've written it! Never fear! You can always go back and edit, so don't put too many boundaries on a post! You make the rules.
FOUR: It's TRUE! If you REALLY don't have anything to blog about, (you're drawing a blank, your mental state at this point is not good, and you have hit delete over 400 times on the first line) STOP TRYING! Guaranteed the minute you give up, a trillion ideas will bombard your brain center. DON'T NOT blog about something because you think other people will find it silly! You'll miss out on a lot or great ideas if you censor them too much. be natural about your blogging. so if something strikes you randomly, write it down for later, don't let ideas get away! A great teacher I once had told me, "Ideas are like fireworks," because it's like there's a great big explosion of light when they first hit you but they disappear so quickly, and then you don't remember them at all, just the fact that they were great, and now they're gone. So don't force it, let it happen, and when it does, WRITE IT DOWN!
FIVE: Don't make blogging a chore. If you have to write a blog for say, a class of some sort.. don't make it a chore! Make it a habit! If you try to force a blog theme, or a post, it's not going to work, and everyone can tell. If your blog feels like a chore, change your theme, change your layout INSPIRE yourself! Everyone has thoughts, opinions, experiences; make your blog an extension of you! You won't ever have a shortage of ideas ten minutes before you have to post, as long as your blog is something you enjoy writing and feel truly connected to. There are things everyday that inspire me in some way, and there are things that drive me bazonkers that I'm really tired of and I choose to write about them. I don't feel strongly about every single one of my posts, but they can't all be golden, or else none of them would be! If you feel passionate about your blog, post ideas will come!
Blog on.
Good luck.
May the force be with you.
October 14, 2009
Buyers Beware!
Consumers be scared?
This post is part of an assignment in advertising class. We have been asked to post our findings after some very intriguing research.
How much are we really thinking about what we eat everyday?
I know that I try to put in some thought, but I'm really not thinking about it as much as I would like to say I am.
SO my buyer beware team decided to find out if frozen or fresh foods would be more beneficial to us average students, based on the following four criteria; price, taste, health, and convenience
We surveyed 80 students to find out what's the most important thing on their minds when shopping for food.
We asked students to rank food,price, taste and health in order of importance with 1 being the most and 4 being the least important.
Taste came in 1st with 53% of the number one votes!
Price pulled second with a solid 30%
Health came in third with 11%
and convenience ranked last with only 6%
We were surprised with the results of our surveys, as we were expecting price to rank number one, seeing as a large amount of students are living on a budget and what not. We had also expected convenience to pull more than 6% of the number one votes, we thought that with students being so busy that time efficient meals would be more of a priority.
We also held a taste test to find out if students preferred fresh or frozen meals.
Our test consisted of a homemade vegetable lasagna, a frozen vegetable lasagna which was Bassili's Best 6 Vegetable Lasagna, homemade chicken alfredo, and frozen chicken alfredo which was Stouffer's Skillet Sensations Chicken Alfredo. Our frozen entrées were chosen because they were marked with the Heart and Stroke Foundation's Health Check and were the cheapest choices with that mark. Students were not aware that one of the dishes was frozen, however most were asking after they had tried both.
The results of that test threw us for a bit of a loop. While the homemade lasagna beat the frozen on by an overwhelming amount of the vote (76%), the homemade chicken alfredo lost to the frozen alfredo only capturing 47% of the votes. We had fully expected our homemade versions to win both taste tests, which may have just been our egos..
The results showed us that good frozen dinners could be purchased at a decent price and tasted, in some cases, better than the homemade alternative.
It took us a long time to prepare both of these meals, and even though we were making double than both recipes called for, our times would not have been cut down by much. The homemade lasagna for example required a good half hour to prep and put together as well as another half an hour in the oven. This was with five people cooking it!
We were slightly surprised with some of the ingredients in frozen dinners. It's important to know what you're eating when you buy a frozen dinner as we found out some actually contained preservatives and chemicals EXTREMELY bad for you in larger doses.
We felt that the answer to our question of fresh or frozen could be broken down to answer for each person's individual needs.
If you're looking for a cheap meal..
We reccommend purchasing frozen dinners, they are actually less expensive than making them at home in most cases and they won't rot or go bad!
If you're looking to stay healthy...
You should probably opt for more home cooked meals. You have much more control over the amount of fats and unhealthy things in your food when you prepare it, as well as you lose a ton of preservatives and chemicals. Healthy options are available in frozen foods, but a healthy frozen dinner doesn't necessarily measure up. If you find you can't help throwing in too much butter when you cook, there are good frozen dinners out there if you look.
If you're looking for a time saver...
Your best is probably a frozen dinner. They're quick, and require very little attention and effort to cook! However if you really want to eat homecooked, prepare a meal like a lasagna on sunday night, it keeps well and will last you a while and even though it might take some time on Sunday, it won't take any on Monday, or Tuesday, or Wednesday...
If you're just looking for the best tasting meal out there...
Well that's all up to you. Some people prefer the taste of a frozen meal, and some people prefer home cooking. If you're not the best chef, there's definitely a frozen dinner out there for you. If you are a good chef, we say take the plunge and go for it at home! You can also control how your food tastes when you cook it and can alter things to the way you'd like it!
If you're looking for a good time..
haha just kidding!
But really, we had a great time cooking together and it can be a fun way to spend time with your roommates or to get that lazy boyfriend to do some cooking!
This post is part of an assignment in advertising class. We have been asked to post our findings after some very intriguing research.
How much are we really thinking about what we eat everyday?
I know that I try to put in some thought, but I'm really not thinking about it as much as I would like to say I am.
SO my buyer beware team decided to find out if frozen or fresh foods would be more beneficial to us average students, based on the following four criteria; price, taste, health, and convenience
We surveyed 80 students to find out what's the most important thing on their minds when shopping for food.
We asked students to rank food,price, taste and health in order of importance with 1 being the most and 4 being the least important.
Taste came in 1st with 53% of the number one votes!
Price pulled second with a solid 30%
Health came in third with 11%
and convenience ranked last with only 6%
We were surprised with the results of our surveys, as we were expecting price to rank number one, seeing as a large amount of students are living on a budget and what not. We had also expected convenience to pull more than 6% of the number one votes, we thought that with students being so busy that time efficient meals would be more of a priority.
We also held a taste test to find out if students preferred fresh or frozen meals.
Our test consisted of a homemade vegetable lasagna, a frozen vegetable lasagna which was Bassili's Best 6 Vegetable Lasagna, homemade chicken alfredo, and frozen chicken alfredo which was Stouffer's Skillet Sensations Chicken Alfredo. Our frozen entrées were chosen because they were marked with the Heart and Stroke Foundation's Health Check and were the cheapest choices with that mark. Students were not aware that one of the dishes was frozen, however most were asking after they had tried both.
The results of that test threw us for a bit of a loop. While the homemade lasagna beat the frozen on by an overwhelming amount of the vote (76%), the homemade chicken alfredo lost to the frozen alfredo only capturing 47% of the votes. We had fully expected our homemade versions to win both taste tests, which may have just been our egos..
The results showed us that good frozen dinners could be purchased at a decent price and tasted, in some cases, better than the homemade alternative.
It took us a long time to prepare both of these meals, and even though we were making double than both recipes called for, our times would not have been cut down by much. The homemade lasagna for example required a good half hour to prep and put together as well as another half an hour in the oven. This was with five people cooking it!
We were slightly surprised with some of the ingredients in frozen dinners. It's important to know what you're eating when you buy a frozen dinner as we found out some actually contained preservatives and chemicals EXTREMELY bad for you in larger doses.
We felt that the answer to our question of fresh or frozen could be broken down to answer for each person's individual needs.
If you're looking for a cheap meal..
We reccommend purchasing frozen dinners, they are actually less expensive than making them at home in most cases and they won't rot or go bad!
If you're looking to stay healthy...
You should probably opt for more home cooked meals. You have much more control over the amount of fats and unhealthy things in your food when you prepare it, as well as you lose a ton of preservatives and chemicals. Healthy options are available in frozen foods, but a healthy frozen dinner doesn't necessarily measure up. If you find you can't help throwing in too much butter when you cook, there are good frozen dinners out there if you look.
If you're looking for a time saver...
Your best is probably a frozen dinner. They're quick, and require very little attention and effort to cook! However if you really want to eat homecooked, prepare a meal like a lasagna on sunday night, it keeps well and will last you a while and even though it might take some time on Sunday, it won't take any on Monday, or Tuesday, or Wednesday...
If you're just looking for the best tasting meal out there...
Well that's all up to you. Some people prefer the taste of a frozen meal, and some people prefer home cooking. If you're not the best chef, there's definitely a frozen dinner out there for you. If you are a good chef, we say take the plunge and go for it at home! You can also control how your food tastes when you cook it and can alter things to the way you'd like it!
If you're looking for a good time..
haha just kidding!
But really, we had a great time cooking together and it can be a fun way to spend time with your roommates or to get that lazy boyfriend to do some cooking!
