I love this ad

I know that the copyranter has an almost monopoly on the advertising comments, but I love this ad for Mrs. T's Pierogies.

The Photoshop work is top notch; I have no idea what was staged and what was photoshopped. The shadows are excellent. The strap on the potato is a little weak, but I can forgive as the apron on the pasta shell is to perfection.

The best part? Unbeknownst to the fetching package on the couch, the potato paints it unclothed. I love it!

Using sex to sell the New York Times

October 15, 2006
Cyberface: New Technology That Captures the Soul
By SHARON WAXMAN
SANTA MONICA, Calif.

THERE’S nothing particularly remarkable about the near-empty offices of Image Metrics in downtown Santa Monica, loft-style cubicles with a dartboard at the end of the hallway. A few polite British executives tiptoe about, quietly demonstrating the company’s new technology.

What’s up on-screen in the conference room, however, immediately focuses the mind. In one corner of the monitor, an actress is projecting a series of emotions — ecstasy, confusion, relief, boredom, sadness — while in the center of the screen, a computer-drawn woman is mirroring those same emotions.

It’s not just that the virtual woman looks happy when the actress looks happy or relieved when the actress looks relieved. It’s that the virtual woman actually seems to have adopted the actress’s personality, resembling her in ways that go beyond pursed lips or knitted brow. The avatar seems to possess something more subtle, more ineffable, something that seems to go beneath the skin. And it’s more than a little bit creepy.

“I like to call it soul transference,” said Andy Wood, the chairman of Image Metrics, who is not shy about proclaiming his company’s potential. “The model has the actress’s soul. It shows through.”

Waiting for the Cable Guy

*Waiting for the Cable guy...my lord!
Waiting for the Cable guy...my lord!
Waiting for the Cable guy...Waiting for the Cable guy...Waiting for the Cable guy...my lord!

Be here from two to five...my lord!
Be here from two to five...my lord!
Be here from two to five...Be here from two to five...Be here from two to five...my lord!

It's four fifty two...my lord!
It's four fifty two...my lord!
It's four fifty two...It's four fifty two...It's four fifty two...It's four fifty two...my lord!

Don't wanna go to the bathroom...my lord!
Don't wanna go to the bathroom...my lord!
Don't wanna go to the bathroom...Don't wanna go to the bathroom...Don't wanna go to the bathroom...my lord!

Someone's getting a letter...my lord!
Someone's getting a letter...my lord!
Someone's getting a letter...Someone's getting a letter...Someone's getting a letter...my lord!

*To be sung to the tune of Mary Had a Baby.

Culture Minister

We need a Culture minister; if only to protect us from Jay-Z. Oh wait, it's Tipper Gore. NEVER MIND!!

October 11, 2006
China Cancels Jay - Z's Shanghai Concert
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 8:15 a.m. ET

SHANGHAI, China (AP) -- China's Culture Ministry has nixed a concert this month by rap artist Jay-Z at Shanghai's Hongkou Stadium, citing a need to protect local hip-hop fans from nasty lyrics, a report said Wednesday.

''Some of Jay-Z's songs contain too much vulgar language,'' the state-run Shanghai Daily newspaper quoted Sun Yun, of promoter KS Production Co., as saying to explain the ministry's reason for refusing permission for the Oct. 23 concert.

The concert would have been the Chinese debut for the rap icon, whose real name is Shawn Carter.

The New York rapper's use of profanity and songs about drug dealers, pimps and violence apparently offended the culture czars, who have recently allowed other groups with sexually suggestive songs, such as The Rolling Stones and the Black Eyed Peas, to perform in Shanghai.

The cancellation could not be immediately confirmed, but a notice posted Wednesday on an online ticket booking Web site, Tickets365, said the concert had been postponed.

The notice in red gave no reason, but said concertgoers would be contacted as soon as a new date was set.

A call to a representative for the rapper early Wednesday went unanswered, as did calls to the news office of China's Culture Ministry. The number for KS Production was not available.

Hostage

You become a hostage the moment you need to make a different choice and you don't.

--George Kohlrieser, Psychologist