Okay, so I haven’t posted in a while. When you try to be creative in every aspect of your life, it can really get overwhelming, and you find yourself letting go of activities that are the extra-curriculars. So, in one way this is a good thing, it means that I’m keeping a blog because it’s fun, and putting work into it is actually more like playing. In another way, it’s not so great, because it’s just another way that I cut out things that help me grow and learn and breathe in order to do the soul-crushing things that stunt creativity and cause heart palpitations. Is it obvious that we’ve reached mid-term?
Month: October 2008
Curiosity with Dave Koranda
Last spring I took a course with the advertising department on the subject of curiosity. (What it is, how we get it, and how we can harness it to do great things in our field.) It was one of the most interesting courses I’ve taken in college, the kind of class that you know is preparing you for more than a test, or final project, or even just to get a job once you graduate, but is actually preparing you for LIFE. It taught me that in order to make something interesting for other people, I need to make it interesting for myself, and the way to do that is to have an insatiable sense of curiosity. Anyway, we had a term-long project to research and present on any subject imaginable, as long as we were curious about it.
My project was on the Hindu faith, and I chose to present with a sequence of images and facts.
-Ghandi
Quick Facts:
World’s Third largest religion
started in Indian subcontinent
oldest practiced religion- 8500 years old
Belief in rebirth, reincarnation. Life is cyclical, soul is born into many bodies
The main texts are the vedas, the mahabharata, the bagadvad gita.
But what does this really mean?
panthiesm: many gods
henothiesm: many gods, but one worshipped as your special diety
trimurti: brahma, vishnu, shiva
monothiesm: Brahman, the one supreme being, existing everywhere.
But Hinduism is considered to be all of
these things, yet none at the same time.
The richness of storytelling and importance
of mythologies in the Hindu faith can be
expressed through an example found in the
the story of Ganesha, who takes the form
of a man with the head of an elephant.
Born of Devi, the consort to Shiva the destroyer while he was away. Because offspring of the gods are born within a day of conception, Ganesha came somewhat as a surprise to Devi. She decided, like any mother would, to take a break and get in the bath, and told Ganesha to guard the door, ordering him that no one should enter. In the meantime, Ganesha’s father Shiva returns, sees a strange man at his house, and is justifiably suspicious. He demands entrance. Because neither knew the other for what they were, Ganesha refused to let his father in, and Shiva grew angry and decapitated him. Devi hears the commotion, runs out, only to find her son beheaded and the father standing over him. She explains the situation to Shiva, and begs him to bring their son back to life. Shiva, now realizing his mistake, returns him to life, giving him the head of the first animal he saw-the elephant.
learn the tenents of hinduism, which are:
dharma- duty
artha- economic prosperity
kama- senses, pleasure.
moksha-liberation from samsara, the cycle of rebirth.
At this point, your soul is joined with brahman.
But what is the personal interaction between
a person who practices Hinduism and their faith?
arts
a temple.
Flowers at rajghat- site of a cremation memorial for Ghandi
Hinduism, like any religion, will mean
something different to every different
“If I know Hinduism at all, it is essentially inclusive and ever-growing, ever-responsive. It gives the freest scope to imagination, speculation and reason.”
-Ghandi
Ke Kau Chocolatier
These chocolates are the bomb. I first heard of them through a copywriting class I took with Ann Maxwell. They were our “clients” in writing long newspaper copy, and I will forever be grateful to Ann for bringing in sample chocolates for the whole class.
The main appeal of these chocolates is the blending of unusual and often conflicting flavors to create a very unique taste. Some examples are Thai Curry, a blend of chili curry and lemongrass, or Smoky Blue, which combines Rogue Creamery’s Smoky Blue cheese with chocolate and chipotle chili.
So I wrote individual descriptions of some of the chocolates to showcase their unique flavor, emphasizing that there is a journey within each chocolate. The tagline, redeFINE chocolate, plays with the fact that though this is a fine chocolate, is goes beyond the boundaries of what one would describe as chocolate to become something uniquely different. Here’s some copy I wrote for a couple of the specialty chocolates:
Colombian Fruttato:
Find a place where cultures
combine. Dig your feet into
the cool sands of Trinidad,
your senses overcome by
the warm breeze playing
across your skin, the scent of
fruit in the air. Feel the
smoldering heat of a Tuscan
sunset, your nostrils full of
the aroma of crushed wild
grasses as you make your
way back to the villa.
Earl Grey’s Blues:
Return to an age of savory teas.
Calling to mind the time of
empires, of silk roads and spice
shipments, the rich bouquet
of exotic spices mingle with
the sharp flavor of bergamot
orange. Add a dash of cream,
and remember to hold out
your pinky as you sip.
Habanero Tequila:
Spicy habanero peppers,
baked in the scorching
amazonian sun. The fiery
burn of Mexican tequila
thrown down your gullet.
Add a spicy Ecuadorean
chocolate and just a hint
of the sweltering heat of
Tahiti encased in a
sun-ripened lime. Not your
ordinary hot chocolate.ate.
Somehow, things look much more interesting when they’re really, really slow.
See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.
update: Here’s that Acura ad. Such a cool idea.
and, just for good measure, here’s something else cool with bullets in slow motion. Now I have to rush off to class!