A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood

I have lived in a cozy little town house in Parkmerced all of my life. The neighborhood is made up of ever repeating patterns of houses and courtyards with hidden passages and corners scattered all over the place. It's a very nice place to wander around in and you will easily get lost unless you've done some exploring of your own. The community extends to a large lake/golf course on the west side of the village and this is all very close to the packed SF State University campus. My house, being only two blocks away from the campus, means I've had to pass by it everyday and watch the college kids as they partook in their nice quiet college activities (I also have had to be neighbors with a few noisy students). In this neighborhood every house is the exact same, all painted the same colors, all with the same square footage, and all with the same courtyards and garages, making it seem like you're living in some gated communist society (a lot of old Russian people do live here).

This neighborhood has shaped me and the way I view my outside world for life. I can say I am who I am because of the neighborhood I live in. I am packed close to my neighbors and have developed life long relationships because of it. Because of all these experiences with neighbors and exploring as a young boy I am the man you see today. The quiet and transient courtyards are always a reminder to me of all the time I've spent playing in them as a child. Now I just like to go for a walk or a light jog up and around the pathways, and I am always running into someone I know.

A Whole Lotta Advertisements

There are very few advertisements I can enjoy, but there are a couple that do stand out to me as original and creative, or simply ones I don't mind listening to or watching. True, there are TONS of advertisements I see and hear on the daily, but most of them are easily marketed without any effort so often they won't stand out at all. Television ads for example are now getting very creative; using many different fast paced shots, angles, and pictorial titles with flashy pictures to market something quickly. I enjoy any well made commercial that ventures outside of the box to entertain me or keep me guessing as to what they are actually advertising!

This video is of two ads in the British Television Ad Awards I went to see last year at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. There was a whole lotta advertisements that were just plain silly but some stood out as very well made and kept my full attention while I watched.

This six minute long advertisement won third place in the advertising awards for its perfection because it was all filmed in one take and tells a story about a whiskey company, (that isn't too interesting) but I enjoyed watching it because I wondered how many takes it must of taken them to finally get everything right.