Not feeling so hot

The purpose of this blog keeps changing.

I keep forgetting to update it with my internship updates. SO I'LL DO THAT LATER MAYBE.

OR

Just change this to a current life-work-inspa-blog

NON SCHOOLIN POST

i need to stick to one idea.

2nd week as an intern.

Monday & Tuesday, February 3 & 4 2008


On Monday I was on time again, 9:45ish, the run through went on at about 11, only to prove that there was nothing for me to do till 1:30pm. Part of that time, I was eating a chicken alfredo Lean Cuisine and iChating. After that, I printed stuff we did for a client after turning them into pdfs, then worked a keynote presentation, of the agency's latest work, which I would find the following Monday (today) revised, anyway. Finished what I could and went home. But ran into Jackie at Pen Station, which ended my day on a happy note.

Tuesday I got to work on time but the door was locked. Crap, I thought. I'm still really shy in the office and didn't know if I would disturb a meeting the bosses were having, seeing that theyre were the only 2 voices I heard. Finally I lightly knocked and was let in. Funny thing about my shyness, no one knows I have it, for the most part. Things got started on faster page on Tuesday, which I enjoyed, but by faster, I mean still giving me plenty of time to write a huge journal entry about what happened the week previously. I got put on a Soft Sheen Carson email, but already had a layout prepared to work with. I fiddled around with that, made lots and lots of coffee to keep my mind off how cold the building is, got udon soup from Kofoo by school, then went back to work and finished the just in time to go home.


I really am suprised by how laid back everything is, I really enjoy it.

This entry is much shorter than last weeks, probably, because outside of interning, it was very BAD and dramatic week. Causing mental blocks of all the decent stuff that went on.

Internship blog

Monday, January 21, 2008

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Interview day. All my friends thought that my interview day was a mistake and that no one would be in the office to meet me. But they were wrong, which was a relief me and me jet lagged body, proving that I didn't take the trek from my parents' house in Staten Island in vain.

The interview was a nice little chat pretty much. They asked me how my semester abroad was and about my euro-travels. Small talk, showed me around the small office, which I was happy about, a small tight knit group would def be more comfortable than a huge firm.

I was excited to see that they have their own NICE coffee machine, meaning this will not me the Starbuck's runs I grew accustomed to working at Conde Nast a few summers ago.

All in all, got the job, and I'm getting a sweet stipend!




Monday, January 28, 2008

So I woke up extra early, to avoid F train delays last Monday morning. It seems that all my important mornings start off with a train delay thanks so someone having a stroke or flinging themselves off a platform. Rush hour is not a time to do either of these things.

I got to the city with a half an hour to spare before having to get to Magnetik, so I wandered a bit and purchased a drink and then headed to work.
I wasn't nervous till about 15 minutes into the train ride from Brooklyn, the walk calmed me down. But as I rose up to the sixteenth floor of 350 Seventh Avenue, I began to sweat. Nerves, nerves, nerves, a reason I got a fruit smoothie instead of a coffee for my first day, I'd already be too wired on nerves.

I got to work and one of my bosses (Doug) was out of town the other (Will) was wandering about the office, and a really sweet girl Diandra, the company's account manager introuced herself.The time was nearing 10 am, and three more people came in. All male, minus me and Diandra. I suck at names but I think the names are as follows: Chuck, Adam, Chris. I could be totally wrong on at least 2 of the 3 I just listed. But I tried. Anyway, I am used to an environment of women after working at Domino Magazine, and catty gossipy ones at that! Always whispering on the phone to their neighbor. This was much quieter, but when someone spoke it was for all to hear. No secrets.

So everyone sat down for a while before doing anything. Email checking, you tubing, little chattiness. Then there was a run through of things that needed to be done for each account. I thought the atmosphere was cool till the music started. It was like early morning jungle-techno beats. It made me sweat more, thinking "great, I hate this place already" and the quietness of everyone was beginning to urk me out.

What I got off the list was the same as someone else, except it was just to get my feet wet. Which I appreciated, although I was nervous and sweaty - not taking off my cardigan to expose the stains that developed on the underpits of my very synthetic shirt.

Sooner that later I was hungry. No one had left to eat yet and it was nearing 1:30pm. Growling erupted from my stomach, but I help my composure and kept fiddling with my photoshop file for the Aquaflex drink website. When someone finally left the office about 15 minutes later, I must have looked sad and confused because the neighbor to my station ensured me that I can go out and eat lunch when ever I chose. I laughed, then ran to the microwave my pad thai that I made the previous night at home.

After eating, and fiddling with a website layout, I didn't know what to do for the remainder of the day, so I texted Jackie Sullivan to see how she was doing at her internship at KBP. She was pretty much as bored as I was, so there was a text marathon for a bit of time. Then I fiddled some more, emailed some, drank some more water, then the day was over.

Oh yea, the music changed to better towards the end of the day! And we all chatted before we left and got friendlier. Phew.





Tuesday, January 29, 2008

I arrived at my job on time, again, which is very exciting - I am terrible at keeping time. I like to blame my parents. They never seem to be able to get anywhere on time, and it seems, this defect was passed on to both of their offspring, though our lives at college and work have thus tried to alter it, the Hanna genetics are unbreakable.

I sat down and ate my banana and drank some water, immediately I was given a website banner to 'do' for people.com. This meant, adding their new "People.com" logo into their old banner and deleting the regular magazine logo. Snazzy. I really was happy about it. A legit but easy quickie for the morning.

After I was done with that there was maybe 2 hours that went by of me killing time with that photoshop file from the previous day. Then I got an assignment to make corrections on a promo piece in InDesign for Valiant, one of their clients.

Music was way better today, Belle and Sebastian type stuff all day, which I really enjoy.

As I was making corrections, I received a text from Ally Lever saying that we had an internship meeting at school from 2-3. "Crap" I thought, I just told my boss about the rare meetings and that I didn't know when they were going to happen. He said it was no problem and just to let him know. Sure enough, there was one today. Awesome. I felt like an idiot because I already said I didn't know when they were, then I had to ask to leave because we were suddenly notified.

Regardless, I left and went to school which is down the block (very convenient!) and waited around. The schools unorganized nature left both the class and the professor locked out for at least a good 15 minutes.

Things at the meeting went quick, and half the class couldn't make it so that probably helped. Then we all ran off back to out jobs.

I began to panic at work because I had to do a very semi-flat duo tone image which I don't know how to do, and without any of the pantone color specs, and too afraid to ask.
I just tried my best to match what they already did. Which I guess worked out?

Then it was time to go to get a slice of pizza with Alex Robb and Steph Adler and run to class for 6:20pm.

Relationships between the world and Mark E. Smith

Dada:

An anti war rhetoric (WWI)
Designed to combat Nationalism
It denied the cultural value of at
Deliberately disregarded artistic convention

“…disgusted by the butchery of WWI, we devoted ourselves to the Fine Arts. Despite the remote booming of artillery we sang, painted, pasted, and wrote poetry with all our might and main. We were seeking an elementary art to cure man of the frenzy of the times and a new order to restore the balance between heaven and hell. This art rapidly became a subject of general disapproval. It was not surprising to us that the “bandits” were unable to understand us. In their puerile megalomania and power-madness, they demanded that art itself must serve to brutalize mankind.”

HORRORS OF WWI, lost generation, disillusionment

Influences on Mark E. Smith:
Total rejection of the standard coupled with an active desire to undermine and make ridicule of that same cultural standard.

The Fall influence on the name:
The bands name, the fall, is itself a reference to the novel by Albert Camus, a nihilist.

The ides of nihilism is inherently tied to punk.

Punk itself is a rejection of a norm, namely:

The Sex Pistols’ slogan “no future”

The post baby-boom generation (Mark E. Smith) had nothing to rally behind. No wars, no great oppressor, only the disillusionment of the hippies and the general distaste for the political workings of the older generations. Punk stems from boredom.

One could criticize punk as an inability to face up to the harsh realities of the world (being that there was nothing to actually rally for)

Mark E. Smith’s lyrics speak chiefly at the dissatisfaction with the world.
• anger and mediocrity (like all punk)
• lament for the death of literacy
• disgust with the state of culture

“Contradictory” reference points I was told to research:
Opera and contemporary dance music, witchcraft and amphetamines, Luddism and valium, hobgoblin and Queen Victoria.

Though they seem contradictory in the world of Mark E. Smith the represent the dissatisfaction with the ideas and ideals held by many as sacred.

Each shows the same thing, just put forth under a different flag.
Hobgoblins are essentially fictional beasts that live to cause torment, and are pressed into our psyches from an early age but so is the Queen Victoria. In other words, these comparisons serve to show that all human inner workings are frail and pointless, i.e. Nihilism.
Albert Camus sought to prove life itself to be meaningless. Taking a cue from the “pure reason” of Nietzsche, Camus showed that only in CHAOS there is TRUE ORDER or vice versa. *Camus: Humans are a victims of their own lives and in the end they are just going to be fucked*


Mark E. Smith was a college dropout and become a working class hero as he worked in the Salford docks, which he quit shortly to gain attention and recognition for his ideas by devoting his full energies to The Fall.

This new energy came with the disregard of social standards as well as
Dress
Attitude
Actions

Smith’s attitude and “bellicose insobriety” is, likely in his own estimation, a rejection of the social value of courtesy; most of us grow out of being visibly inebriated in public before the age of 25; Mark E. Smith is still at it.


CONNECTIONS Mark E. Smith and Dada

Dada was a knee jerk response to the shock of modern warfare and in inability to cope.

Mark E. Smith has a similar response to being born into a relative comfort and normality in Manchester 1957, an inability to cope with the very drabness of life itself.

He would much rather people think about his music that sit/dance and enjoy it.


Although Camus is a great writer, he and his cohorts like Jean Paul Sartre are, at heart, lazy whiners (at least from one perspective). The same can be said about Mark E. Smith.
• He is always dunk (or at least represents himself to be)
• Draws influence from a purely philosophical perspective
This is to say he does not account for any perspective, but for his own ideals – look at the interviews with him, he is very quick to dismiss alternative (which is oftentimes ironically mainstream) methodology as “shit”.

ALTHOUGH Mark E. Smith draws verbal influence from the depth of literary knowledge, his complaints are the same as any punk rocker:
• the song “God Box” which is anti TV
• many songs in which he decries David Bowie and Glam Rock such as “Hard in the Country” and “Glam Racket”
• angry over a girl in “Hillary”
• and every other song criticizing the stiffness of society.


A friend’s interpretation of the life Mark E. Smith:
What society ever did to Mark E. Smith, we may never know for sue. But rest assured it weaned him on both comfort and knowledge, without any real cause for struggle while feeding him drugs and making him bitter that the world cares not for a visionary artist. Rather than actually going ahead and enjoying what he had, he took the “punk” route, and concentrated on how miserable his life was. It earned him millions of dollars.


Smith’s mail goal in life was NOT TO CONFORM, this appears more important than any underlying social message.

More typical Smith complaints:
• Things are too “trendy” ex. Glasgow, scenes, kids
• Government “becoming fascist”

It’s possible Smith could just be a drunken commie.

Mark E. Smith

I checked the Library at Chelsea and it led me to The Wonderful and Frightening World of Mark E. Smith
I found it in 9 pieces on youtube. The following are part 1 and then part 5.








A music video:


WIKI'D SMITH

Mark Edward Smith (born 5 March 1957) is the lead singer, lyricist, frontman, and sole consistent (OF 49!) member of The Fall, a renowned and idiosyncratic offshoot from the English post-punk popular music scene.

Biography

Smith was born to a working-class family in Broughton, Salford, in Lancashire, England, and moved to nearby Prestwich, in Bury early in his life. He formed The Fall (named after the novel by Camus) with friends after dropping out of college at the age of 19. He gave up his job at Salford docks shortly after to devote his full energies to The Fall, and has continued to do so ever since. Smith married Californian guitarist (and Fall band member, 1983-89, 1994-96) Brix Smith on 19 July 1983, though they divorced in 1989. He has since remarried twice. He married his present wife, Eleni (sometimes called Elenor or Elena) Poulou, in 2001, and she joined The Fall in September 2002.
Smith has won much acclaim for his unique lyrical style, which mixes elements of social realism, surrealism, and absurdism, dwelling on subjects as far removed as unemployment and football violence to time travel and ghosts, all with the same wit, astute humour and precarious balance between brutalism and intellect. In interviews, he has cited Colin Wilson,[1] Wyndham Lewis, H. P. Lovecraft, and Philip K. Dick as influences.[2] When British DJ and Fall champion John Peel died in 2004, Smith made a notorious appearance on the BBC's Newsnight show.[3] Regarded by many as a bewildering performance, Smith has made his appreciation for John Peel clear in several subsequent interviews. Nevertheless, the two only met a handful of times. Though he broke his hip while promoting the album The Real New Fall LP (Formerly Country on the Click) in 2004, Smith refused to cancel an upcoming American tour, instead choosing to perform in a wheelchair. Unfortunately the pain and medication caused a number of dates to be cancelled.
In January 2005, The Fall were the subject of The Fall: The Wonderful and Frightening World of Mark E. Smith, a BBC Four television documentary. The following August, Smith received the "Contribution to Music" award at the Diesel-U-Music Awards. Smith is currently working with Manchester-based writer Austin Collings on an autobiography, Renegade: The Gospel According to Mark E. Smith, due to be published by Viking Books in February 2008. His latest musical project is Von Südenfed, a collaboration with Mouse on Mars, whose first album, Tromatic Reflexxions, was released on May 21, 2007.

Work without The Fall
Music
Alongside his work with The Fall, Smith has released two spoken-word solo albums: The Post-Nearly Man (1998) and Pander! Panda! Panzer! (2002). Both albums feature readings of Fall lyrics, samples of Fall songs and contributions from members of The Fall, and the line between Smith's solo career and his work with the group remains somewhat blurred.
Smith has also appeared as a guest vocalist for Edwyn Collins, Inspiral Carpets, Elastica, Long Fin Killie, Mouse on Mars, Coldcut, and Ghostigital.
[edit]Writing and acting
In 1987, Smith wrote the play "Hey Luciani!" based around the short-lived reign of Pope John Paul I. Smith has also periodically acted as guest contributor to publications including the NME. He has appeared in an acting role in several television programmes and films. He made a brief appearance as himself in the Michael Winterbottom film 24 Hour Party People (2002) and in May 2007 he made an appearance on the BBC Three sitcom Ideal, playing a foulmouthed, chain-smoking Jesus.

Added sound.

Dialog and sound update