I've always been a big fan of Rocky & Bullwinkle. Even more so of Dr. Peabody and his boy Sherman. When asked in those idiotic online personal questionnaires what celebrity I look like I always say Peabody's Boy Sherman, grown up. But more on that later....
So here they are, Boris and Natasha, Moose and Squirrel, in an odd tribute to reality television, such as it is.
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?
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.
Religion has been used to generate mass hysteria for political ends for thousands of years now. But there have been few films that show the process so clearly. Ken Russell’s film, The Devils is the movie about EVERYTHING: the spirituality and lust in love; the madness and transcendence of sexual repression; using the threat of an imagined enemy to create state sponsored 
terror; justifying the use of torture to extract forced confession…. Watching this movie one can imagine the twisted and tortured mind of Roy Cohn
while watching Vanessa Redgrave suffer the madness of desires that she demonizes and projects onto others. Not to mention the hypocrisy of Ted Haggard, Larry Craig and so on and so on.
This is a truly important movie. And it is simply criminal that it isn’t available on DVD. The VHS tape version is poor quality, and it has been cut. However there is a petition to Warner Home Video. And if you’ve seen this film and want to make sure others can, please sign the petition. If you’ve haven’t seen the film, read what others have to say about it, and then sign the petition.
The New York Times today reported that Buddhism may be
dying out in Japan. I am not in a position
to be able to determine the accuracy of that report, however I did want to comment on something Kazuma Hayashi, a Buddhist priest, said about the custom of selling posthumous honorific names to families of the recently deceased:
“I know that, originally, that’s not what Buddhism was about,” Mr. Hayashi said of the top name. “But it’s a brand that our customers choose. Some really want it, so that means there’s a strong desire there, and we have to respond to it.”
There is so much wrong with that statement I don't know where to begin. There is the reference to people who come for his services as customers. This may be a problem of translation though. The Japanese okyaku can be translated as either "guest" or "customer," however I suspect customer is indeed what Mr. Hayashi meant.
Then he said that he sells these names because people really want it, there's a strong desire. Uhhh, pardon me, but isn't Buddhism about letting go of desire? Certainly any Zen priest could tell you that. Of course, Buddhism is so debased in Japan there are sects that teach believers that chanting can bring them material wealth. Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz?
The Buddha did not chant to change the path of the deceased. But of course, just as Christianity picked up local customs and gods and incorporated them into local expressions of the faith, Buddhism radically changed as it moved from northern India through China to Japan. The Japanese in fact see no contradiction be being both Shinto and Buddhist, but then Shinto is a religion and Buddhism, at least as taught by the Buddha, was a way of life, a practice. Not a religion. All the rites and rituals came later. This doesn't really matter though today since it has become a religion for so many. Complete with deities the Buddha wouldn't recognize. But this is a bigger subject.
Then there is the issue of Buddhism as a brand. This is one of my personal bugaboos. Buddhism is not a brand. The Democratic party is not a brand. A candidate is not a brand. This is the infection of consumerism into religion and politics. And I am afraid my industry, advertising, is probably very guilty in bringing this way of thinking to the world. Still, every time I hear a pundit on CNN refer to something like "the Kennedy brand" my blood boils (clearly I am not meditating enough).
The posthumous sale of indulgences is what led to schism in the Roman church in the middle ages. It drove people from the church. And clearly it is having a similar effect in Japan in Buddhsim.
Buddhist priests in Japan own the family temple and hand down the job to their sons, since they marry.
Another unique wrinkle in Japanese Buddhism. I have nothing against 
priests marrying. I think the Catholic church would be a happier place if priests were allowed to marry again (as they did, even popes were married, until the early middle ages). But this is simply Buddhism as the family business.
We all seek comfort when someone we love dies. Even more so when a child dies. In Japan, the custom is to purchase a statue of the bodhisatva Jizo, who is said to intercede on behalf of the souls of dead children (and aborted fetuses) in hell. As you can see from this photo from Kamakura's famous Hase Temple, business is booming.
No wonder that Japan people are turning away even as more Americans look to Buddhism as a refuge from consumerist culture and materialism.
Okay, not really Miss Thingyan. These are photos from the annual ThinGyan New Year's Water Festival celebrated by the Burmese community in New York City down on Henry Street on the Lower East Side. Great noodles. Deliciously cold iced orchid tea. And lots of water from super soakers and silver bowls splashed around for good luck in the new year. There was also entertainment — traditional dance troupes and singers from the more than 30 different ethnic groups that make up the Burmese nation. And while most of the men were in those sexy sarongs called longyi, this young man had to endure the heat, and dance, in this traditional fashion statement. 
There was also a fund raiser raffle to raise money for the victims of Hurricane Nargis. The day turned out to be a GLYNY Again mini-mini reunion, since I went to the festival with John Chiafalo, the 4th Chair of Gay Youth in the early 70s, and Mark K., who is the GLYNY Again archivist (which is not so different from the position he held in GLYNY in the mid 80s).
Afterward we were good and soaked...well just a little sprinkled...we headed uptown for another ethnic celebration by an exotic culture. Yes, it was the Bastille Day celebration on East 60th Street, where there were many delicious desserts, including this handsome young fellow in a balloon version of a revolutionary tricorner:
Ah, New York City. Why would one want to live anywhere else in the world?
I remember the first time I read this monologue in The Essential Lenny Bruce. Everyone has been memorialized George Carlin these last weeks, but he would never have existed had it not been for Bruce, who went to jail for saying things Carlin made millions with. This cartoon version of his take on The Lone Ranger is one of my favorites.
Ogilvy & Mather in Singapore has created a campaign for Lorgan’s — a furniture store specializing in retro styles from the last century: 1930s through 70s. The store’s website is great fun, and I love love love their 
Sputnik lamp (we had one over our dining room table around 1965! But it’s the ad campaign — and Singapore — that needs discussion. Visually they show all the goods Lorgan’s sells, and all the ads focus on the 60s. A time that has a reputation for free love. That was really the 70s in the U.S. but let’s not quibble. The people in the ads aren’t there — as in Japanese pornography the shapes are missing, but the empty space they leave leaves little to the imagination. You can see the others, which are all heterosexual couplings (and threesomes) at Adsoftheworld.
What interests me though is the graphic (in both senses of the word) representation of man-on-man action in the ad above. Singapore is not exactly known as a permissive society. While not as conservative as the Islamic law in Malaysia, Singapore is hardly Thailand. Homosexual acts are still illegal there (though rarely prosecuted). And there are public decency laws. I would hazard a guess that certainly the ad above violates section 377 of the penal code, which states:
Any male person who, in public or private, commits, or abets the commission of, or procures or attempts to procure the commission by any male person of, any act of gross indecency with another male person, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 2 years.
On top of that, Singapore has rather harsh laws around the possession of pornography. Remember, this is the city/state that enforced a sentence of caning for a teen aged boy, Michael Fay, just a few years ago for graffiti painting.
So the question is, are these ads really running or is this just spec work posted to the adsoftheworld site to garner attention for O&M Singapore? This is not an unknown strategy for an agency that wishes to up their creative reputation. However, as we saw at Cannes last month, entering work for a client that never ran (or for that matter that the client never saw) can get you in a lot of trouble. In the credits for the ad, they say it was published in April. Is there anyone in Singapore who can verify this?
To rephrase Rosser Reeves: Anybody can be creative, but can you sell it to the client. And then, of course, does it sell to consumers? That’s why I don’t like to see lots of public service spec work in portfolios. If you can’t do a compelling ad for starving children you don’t belong in the business. The real question is, can you do a compelling ad for Tide?
I hope O&M did the Lorgan’s site. It was terrific. I want a Sputnik lamp again!!! I won't say what I might want in any of the print ads however. Of course, my previous post about Chinese army ballet dancers might give you an idea.
Well, actually, the photos that follow this are rather disturbing — it's a series of photos the Boston's Globe's blog called The Big Picture published showing the Chinese Army doing anti-terrorism exercises in preparation for the Olympic Games. These pictures scare me. (Though the photos on the Segway are both hilarious and terrifying at the same time.)
Mind you, it is indeed raining Chinese men. Remember, the one child policy and the preference for male children has led to a wild imbalance in the male/female ratio in China. So there are literally millions of men who will not find a wife. That's a lot of frustrated men in the armed forces — which to me seems like a recipe for worldwide military disaster.
Where is the international homosexual conspiracy to convert when you need it?
Now I have to admit it — I have in fact cavorted with a member of the Red Army. Well, the Red Army Ballet Troupe. One day walking down MacDougal Street in NYC I met the attractive eyes of Jin Xing, a choreographer, dancer and colonel in the Chinese Army's famous ballet corps (shown here at left pre-op). Later — after our own pas de deux — I learned that he had been in Japan earlier that year where he had a met a friend of mine there who it seemed no matter who I met when I lived in Tokyo, he had met the guy already. And it was still happening after I'd moved back to NYC! Well...in any case, Jin Xing went on to become rather famous as China's first MTF transexual. Personally, I think it was a pity. While many sex changes are for deep internal reasons, I believe this is not so different than what happens in Iran today, where gay men prefer to endure sex change operations (which is acceptable) rather than be identified as gay — and thus subject to death under Islamic law. I seem to have wandered far afield...
So getting back to the men on the field above, I suspect that very few of them would turn up at The Web Bar in New York should they find themselves magically transported here (or part of an invasion). But I have to say, that might well be a solution for many of China's population and social problems. And who knows, I might get a boyfriend out of it. Not.
In many spiritual traditions, the inner union of male and female is one of the ways of knowing the Divine. Jung wrote about this union as a way towards psychological wholeness. For men this does not mean becoming feminized (which is a major fear in the gynophobic American culture) but integrating qualities we label masculine and feminine, such as logic and intuition.
As a gay man with an interest in both spirituality and Jungian psychology this subject has always interested me. In some cultures queer people are said to embody both male and female qualities in a way that brings them closer to the world of spirit. Of course, in our monotheistic culture, born of the Israelite 
religion that denied the Divine Feminine (Asherah/Shekhina)even while it was worshiped in the Temple, queer people are a threat — thus the spiritual world we are said to connect with is demonic.
In the world of brain science, Time magazine reported recently that Swedish scientists have concluded from brain scans of 90 gay and straight men and women that “the size of the two symmetrical halves of the brains of gay men more closely resembled those of straight women than they did straight men.”
While I have no idea of the size of my brain I discovered yesterday that the BBC web site that, along with a number of other tests on their site they offer one called Your Sex I.D. It takes about 35 minutes to complete on line. And based on your responses they can tell you where your brain fits on the male/female continuum. Much to my surprise, I was exactly in the middle. Except I can’t say that I am enjoying the spiritual benefits of inner union. The test itself was fascinating though, and I’d be curious to see how large numbers of gay men do on it.
It is true that I find myself attracted to one of the Buddhist saints who is depicted as both male and female (though not at the same time!). Avalokiteshvara is depicted as a young man in India and Nepal — but as Buddhism moved east, in China and Japan he became a she, and is known as Kuan Yin or Kannon.
And of course, in Kabbalistic Judaism, Adam Kadmon, the original created human was an androgyne — based on the phrase in Bereshit translated as “male and female created [he] them.” Diagrams of this first human superimpose the sephirot over the body — sephirot that include Yesod, often connected to the male genitalia, and Malchut, connected to the female genitalia. However this is merely metaphoric externalization of
what is really about an inner state.
Brain scientists have investigated how meditation affects communication between the left and right hemispheres.
A research team investigating the effects of meditation on the brain with the collaboration of the Dalai Llama, showed that meditators had a significant increase in activation in the left pre-frontal regions of their brain, associated with a reduction in the amount of anxiety they reported.
So why aren’t gay men more like the Buddha? I would argue that many gay men in fact are — from those who volunteer their time at places like God’s Love We Deliver to those who become church choir directors we bring our gifts of creativity and compassion to society in many ways. However as a minority that has been demonized, in a culture where a man who exhibits qualities that are ascribed to women is denigrated, there is no question that many of us take on the negatives of both genders — an aggressive bitchiness for example, used as a defense.
I pray for a world where all people, male - female - intersexed - trans - are not merely free to develop their gifts, but a world where those gifts are welcomed and nurtured. Keyn Yehi Ratzon. So may it be.
