Monday, December 26, 2011

Behind the word



   Looking out of one of my living room windows, I see at a street sign I've viewed many times, both from the front and the back. The sign reads, "Arguello", with white letters on a green background with white trim along the edges. This is the name of the street where I live. The sign is probably meant to inform people driving or walking east on Cornwall Street that they have just arrived on Arguello Boulevard, but looking at it from the back, as I currently am, it seems that this sign is intentionally keeping things out of view from the people and cars approaching. Visually, it doesn't allow them to see the construction of the sign as I can, or how it is affixed to the light pole that displays it. Beyond the visual, it strikes me as only showing one side of itself, the informational side. Because I live in an apartment behind the writing, I see the sign in a different way, precisely because the word is not visible to me. I see the construction as purely informational, because the word printed on it does not make me forget that I am looking at a sign.
   Thinking about the sign in this way leads me to think about how language functions as I seek to think about and describe myself to myself, and how it leads me to believe that it has no function other than to make my thoughts and feelings concrete. In reality, it seems to me that the words in my brain are not unlike the one printed on this sign. They provide a sense of reality to me about my existence, but they are more tangible than the feelings I am trying to understand. In back of them is a construction invisible even to me, who is supposed to reside there.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

An in between place

   If one wants to make contact with another person, whether a friend or stranger, how does one do this? Certainly, they can go for a walk, or perhaps make a transaction in a store. They can go into a coffee shop and look at the people around them when they drink their coffee. They could also sit and look at pictures of people they feel close to that aren't there while drinking their coffee, or go to a drugstore to buy a pack of gum, and talk to someone 200 miles away and the person in front of them at the same time, interchanging between the two. With email and social networking available on people's cell phones, it's easy to connect with people who aren't there without speaking or emoting in any way.
   In my own case, it seems that the more comfortable I become talking to people that aren't in front of me on my smartphone while I am amongst other people, the more skillful I become being in two places at once psychically, or, at being in neither place. It's a strange feeling when I really think about it, to be in between places. I often feel quite related to the world after talking to a good friend on my phone, but while engaged in conversation, I often have a sense of being nowhere, although it seems that I am physically. 
   When I am with my wife or a friend in a restaurant or on the street, and they are on their phones, I often feel like I am not in their world at that time, even though I am in very close proximity to them. Even if they give me some kind of sign to show me that they will be terminating their conversations soon, it's like they're saying to me that I will reappear in their surroundings when they finish their conversations. It's a strange sensation to have one's sense of placement in their own bodies' be determined in part by someone present, but not here

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

North Face jackets




The North Face outlet store, San Francisco

   I recently discovered that The North Face company began in San Francisco in 1966. Is that an amazing discovery? Not really, but really informative for me, as I've been wanting to jot down some thoughts on the abundance of North Face jackets worn by the people of the San Francisco bay area, and have been stymied as to why these garments are so omnipresent in this city I live in.
   I've read that this brand is very popular because the weather in San Francisco is so changeable, being a city of micro climates. That may account for part of this company's success, but I believe that there's another, more determinant reason; casualness.
   San Francisco is a city located in the northern part of a laid back state, of which it may well be the most laid back city. People here like to 'dress down', and it seems to me that North Face clothing is the clothing de rigeur of the laid back. Wearing one of these jackets is like a red tie and dark gray suit for a Wall Street power broker. I know that casually dressed people (of which I am one) probably dislike intensely the idea that they may wear a suit of some kind, but I'm afraid that they do. It's just a casual suit.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Stopped




   I have been fascinated for years by the markings found on the street. Commands, instructions and symbols are just some of the things I've seen below me as I walk or drive. The paintings were done at some point in the past, and although seemingly well thought out and planned when executed, the time elapsed since then has often altered or amended their original designs.
   If pavement needs to be replaced, the new patch often obscures part of the message or markings around it. When a manhole cover needs to be removed, the workers who put it back don't seem to care or notice if it is returned in it's original position, and so the original design is changed. It is in these alterations that I can see the passage of time, and understand, at least temporarily, that people often collaborate without the same goals and work together unknowingly to create something new. Although I find these new markings to be beautiful illustrations of time, I am at the same time disappointed that the cooperation is unintentional. While it is true that I witness cooperation often in my daily life, it strikes me as existing generally to avoid violence, chaos, and usually serves the mundane. When participation is beautiful because it is difficult or hard to name, it is by and large moralized or belittled.
  


Thursday, December 1, 2011

The ins and outs of acting in television commercials




Actor Dennis Haysbert

   I have probably seen tens and tens of thousands of television commercials in my life. I never want to see these commercials, but it seems like too much of an effort to either walk away from the screen or cover my eyes and ears every time they are shown. Commercials have always been a part of my television watching experience, and are now a part of my movie theater experience as well. Owing to the fact that I've always found commercials to be a kind of necessary evil (necessary because I don't have the choice to remove them while watching television), I've never really concentrated very much on them. Because of this, I have tended not to think much about their construction and execution (whereas I do tend to analyze these in things I've chosen to see), and they therefore have a kind of selfsame, whole quality for me. By appearing seamless, the actors and actresses in these short films are more difficult to separate from the spots they're in and the characters they portray.
   The actor in the picture above, Dennis Haysbert, would probably be considered more of a spokesman for the insurance company he represents in commercials than an actor portraying a role, but the question of what the actor is portraying in these pieces has become one of interest for me. When an actor or actress plays a role in a commercial, are they interpreting a person to be believed as existing in the world depicted in the the advertisement, or are they taken to be an actor portraying a role of that person? It's an important distinction, because I think that when I watch a film, or even a situation comedy on television, I will be more interested in what I see if I can suspend my disbelief about the situation I am witnessing, and so believe a little bit more that the characters I see are real
   In the case of a spokesperson, it is apparent that the viewer is being asked to take the word of the actor or actress to verify the validity or quality of the product they are selling, and so understand them as existing both inside of and outside of the commercial. If someone performs in an advertisement, and they are viewed not as a spokesperson, but as an actor or actress, seen to exist only inside of the scene they are in, then where is they're outside for me the viewer? And if I should be the the person acting in one of these advertisements, then where would my inside be?