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frigfridge · 5 years

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just finished rewatching toy story 1 thru 3 over the past few days, wanted to share my thoughts:

i love these movies a whole lot. the first 2 hold a bunch of nostalgia for me because i was A Baby when 2 came out and when i was also A Baby i would just watch our VHS copy of toy story 1 over and over again. this also makes me the exact age group to be emotionally destroyed by toy story 3, which came out just as i was entering high school and hit really close to home

individual thoughts:

toy story: the first thing i noticed was it still looks really nice even watching in 2019!! which i think is kind of spectacular for the first feature-length computer-animated film. it no doubt helps that the plot is mostly focused on little plastic dolls without realistic hair or clothing to animate but the semi-”cartoon” art direction means the human characters also look pretty nice without going too far into the uncanny valley.

also, the plot is WAY darker than i remember?? not because of sid and all the body horror toys, but because for like half of the movie woodys friends think hes an actual (toy) murderer carrying around the severed arm of his victim (!!) like, its hilarious, but also wow theres a LONG way to go between there and the climax of toy story 3.

the soundtrack is probably my favorite of the bunch. part of that is probably nostalgia but i just really like the consistency of having randy newman singing every song. it sort of elevates him to part of the story, like an omniscient narrator singing woodys (and later buzzs) inner monologue. 2 (and especially 3) didnt have as many musical numbers, which i can understand with a shift to a larger-scale approach to storytelling, but i really like the feeling it gives number 1. “you got a friend in me” is an obvious classic thats been remixed and brought back in just about every piece of toy story media im aware of, but “strange things” and “i will go sailing no more” deserve just as much recognition and praise. there just isnt a weak number among them

toy story 2: heres where the story started getting bigger and more existential, which basically becomes the new direction of the series. which makes sense! this one released 4 years after the first, and while theres no real timeskip in the story (maybe 6 months?) it had been a little while since we last saw woody and the gang. everybody in the real world had gotten older, and with the turn of the millennium approaching, the theme of impermanence loomed large in the collective unconscious. well, maybe not in my unconscious, because i was 2. but its really interesting as kind of a “time capsule” to what people were thinking about as the 90s came to a close.

so toy story 2 was a little more grounded, a little more focus on the human world, but it was also more fantastical in its presentation. the opening “video game” sequence (which still looks amazing!!) and woodys nightmare (”i dont wanna play with you anymore...”) show the animators at pixar really found their groove and started getting experimental. and to great result!! the fantasy sequences are a lot of fun and help 2 really stand out.

i would be remiss not to mention jessies flashback song here. its something else they hadnt really done in the first film and i think it really works. jessie in this film unfortunately doesnt get to do much other than fight with woody about whether he should stay or go (except for when she saves him in the end) but this song makes her character work. it also helps that it destroys me every time

also i think this is the movie that gave me an appreciation for the acting of kelsey grammer. i dont really agree with his politics (i also dont know specifically what they are) but he is a damn fine actor and gives the prospector a very genuinely intimidating edge after his heel turn. the casting really makes the character here, but thats nothing new for toy story-- every voice works. if i were the casting director, i probably wouldnt have pulled erudite kelsey grammer for a character named “stinky pete,” but as it is now i couldnt imagine him voiced by anyone else.

the last thing about toy story 2 is it feels like there were a lot more pop culture references? at least as far as i noticed. there are apparently even more than i noticed but i caught on to the “also sprach zarathustra” riff in the opening, and the jurassic park rearview mirror gag. and of course the extended star wars reference with zurg vs. utility belt buzz (and i guess zurg in general.) the references are cute and mostly unobtrusive but really i could take or leave them.

oh yeah also al is hilarious. just this rude, neurotic businessman whos incredibly self-important for the owner of a minor(?) toy store chain. hes such a puffed-up jerk, every time hes on-screen is a delight

toy story 3: this one kills me to death. i always get misty-eyed during “when somebody loved me” but the ending of 3 where andy introduces his toys to bonnie and plays with them one last time made me sob the first time i watched it. and it still does! thats the long game right there, thats the payoff of over 10 years loving these characters. its an emotional ketchup bomb, everything gets all messy and soggy and sweet. hopefully 4 can follow up, but im not really worried about that-- ive heard some good things. damn, its been 9 years since this movie came out, though! it really doesnt feel all that long, but i guess i havent been doing all that much

i actually dont know if i have much else to say about 3. the opening with the re-imagining of the previous films openings (woody versus one-eyed bart, buzz and woody vs. the evil dr. porkchop) is a highlight, although theres a conspicuous lack of bo peep. ive heard she has a big part in 4, but it was kind of weird to see a lot of toys missing and their absence (mostly) glossed over after the first few minutes. i miss r.c. and lenny, but i get they wanted to narrow down the cast so all of them could get in on the plot.

speaking of which, the escape scene is great too. its kind of a crystallizing moment of how close these characters are, and how well they work together. it reminds me a lot of the escape from sids house in the first movie, but there woody was working with sids body-horror toys and seemed to strike up a rapport with them bizarrely quickly. (speaking of which, i miss those toys! their designs were super cool, but i cant imagine they got much merchandise, especially babyface with the sharp, metal spider legs.) here, though, woody and the gang cooperate the best they ever have, and it really paints a picture of how close theyve become over the years, and justifies the emotional climax in the landfill. this is what i was talking about when i said i was surprised how dark toy story 1 got! these toys all hated woodys guts back then for what they thought he did to buzz. they kicked him out of a moving truck! its just weird to think about that conflict between them when you know how long they end up sticking together. but thats, like, neat, so its ok. it feels earned, its just kind of crazy in hindsight.

toy story 3 was also obviously made long after the first two-- by comparison, the lighting is way more sophisticated, the humans are a lot more detailed. theres just a lot more detail In General. the main cast is, like, super dirty for the middle 90% of the film, and it feels like, yeah, We Have This Technology Now. we can render so many individual glitter sprinkles suck to hamms ass and they will be in every single scene. the “fur tech” on lotso and buster is also an obvious clue, especially in the flashback to lotso trudging through the rain back to his owners house. its like “look! we can make this teddy bear SO wet!” and wow! yeah! you did! so wet!

lotso himself is also an interesting villain in terms of sheer bastardness. he is just a huge jerk. he could have hit that button so easily! and he was so mean to the baby! but at the same time hes a great character in how he slowly “changes” throughout the movie. he is kind of an obvious “pixar ‘twist’ villain” but again, the amazing performance by ned beatty really saves him. also he does get a nice comeuppance at the end, which was necessary because hes really the biggest villain in the series so far. hes knowingly malicious and doesnt have any greater motive, hes just an embittered megalomaniac who (apparently) has sent other toys to be broken, thrown away, and incinerated at the landfill. he honestly deserves worse than being strapped to the front of a truck but it works for a family movie.

i have a couple more thoughts on 3 (i guess i did have a fair amount of stuff to say about it) but im getting tired of writing. the music is good as usual, but the vocal stuff being entirely back-loaded (in the credits) is a bit disappointing since ive always been a fan of the songs, but i get that they were going for something different. the jokes about ken being, uh, ‘flamboyant’ felt out of place, mostly the one at the end (”uh, buzz? barbie didnt write this”) because it comes from one of the gang and not unnamed lotso goon #3, but i guess its pretty tame in the scheme of things.

overall im really looking forward to seeing what 4 does with the series. whew!

#hopefully ill see 4 this weekend #personal essay #got pretty honkin long. click at your own risk

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k-urokonobasket · 5 years

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kuroko no basket and tarot concepts

the fool - kuroko and ogiwara playing on a streetball court, but they dont see a group of highschoolers approaching (the sky is sunny w the kids side but stormy where the teens are entering frame ykwim!)

the magician - kuroko and kagamis first fist bump, maybe outside a maji burger in street clothes. this is the first step in their journey to becoming numer one and their most valuable resource is each other!

the high priestess - momoi!! her analytical and obersevent eye, drawing patterns and conclusions easily. and i think it might be really cool to show her with some sort of playbook, five players with a skill plot. her ability to intuit like that.... it should be in a seirin/touou match when she predicted how players abilities would grow and evolve.

the empress - i think this would be fun if it were aida riko standing at the head of their tables in a maji burger, stance wide with her hands on her hips, and everyone on the seirin team is listening with rapt attention. because the empress represents traditional femininity, a connection with nature, fertility and stuff, yeah? but i think it'd be more powerful to show how she can rule over her people through well-earned respect, not demanded.

the emperor - duh. akashi seijuro! and this is post split, so you can see his duochrome eyes. i think it would be REALLY cool to either show murasakibara on the ground, after their middle school one on one, but i think that might be too raw! maybe right when he stabbed kagami with the scissors, or when we approaches the miracles at the winter cup, standing on the highest step and all these strong and powerful players and turned with their heads up to watch him enter. but even if like, scale wise akashi wouldnt take up the whole frame, he is so obviously the focal point.

hierophant - so this is INTERESTING. both kagetora and alex have played basketball at a national level and are mentors to these kids who they reach out to when they hit a wall, it might be really cool to show half the card w alex on a streetball court and kagetora running drills in a gym (duality on environment!) but i think it wouldnt be impossible if we were to show kuroko recounting his teiko days, because that context is so important and his stort brings new things to the table, and the whole series is about kuroko developing and honing his style of basketball (light and shadow within the greater complex of team play) is the best kind of basketball! so idk.

the lovers - so i think it would be really really fun to have bokushi/oreshi standing back to back, hands touching, vorpal swords reconnection style. we're never shown a canon romance, and i could insert romance but i dont want to! i think these two parts of akashi being able to reconnect is very selflovecore which. stan.

the chariot - while visually it would be fun to show takao pulling midorima in a rickshaw, i think it would be way sexier to have aomine and kise in their interhigh match, one going into a drive and one going to block. going into conflict!

strength - kagami slowly reaching a hand out to nigou, who is being held by kuroko (sitting on the ground) because like! overcoming fear for the sake of a friend is true strength or w/e and i think thats really sexy. maybe the background is like, on a train? outside a gym? at the park? idk.

the hermit - midorima with balls scattered all around the hoop. he is alone in the gym and he is drilling his threes. self reliance and study babey!!

wheel of fortune - tip off of a basketball game, with the audience filling the bleachers at the top of the frame, and the referee below, whistle in his mouth. two hands reach up and wrap around the ball, and at this point its anyones game!! visually its really sexy bc basketballs are WHAT? round! duality of bias and observation of a game. no matter what someone has done until now doesnt matter, once youre on the court its anyones game.

justice - the referee babey!! specifically during a krisaiki daiichi match with a screen by one of the players to block the fouls theyre delivering onto kiyoshi. the ref is supposed to be an unbiased deliverer of the rules, but just like the sword is tilted, he cannot see through or beyond whats blocking his path.

the hanged man - HUH! so this is about revitalization, renewal and new perspectives, yeah? so i think either kuroko looking at books on misdirection and magic, or maybe him in a game! idk how easily you can represent that in a static frame, but maybe in like the seirin practice match or even teiko, just showing a completely different style of play!

death - this. could be that fixed match btwn teiko and ogiwaras school, showing the 111-11 with kuroko having a breakdown abt it lol! or maybe it might be better to instead show the first time aomine rejected kurokos fistbump, a major change and ending of their relationship as it used to be. or if theres something better for the lovers, the akashis reuniting would be POIGNANT here!!! or maybe even misdirection overflow... huh.

temperence - ohhhh furihata marking akashi! maybe he isnt super skilled but he can slow down the pace of the game, make people think and reevaluate, take caution, and even in the face of a huge power imbalance its still useful!

the devil: either hanamiya or jason silver/nash gold nasty bad player ANTICS

the tower - the generation of miracles all turning their backs on each other and kuroko!! poetic cinema.

the star - this is midorima watching oha asa getting his lucky item of the day. man proposes god disposes babey this card was made for him. as long as he does what hes meant to, fate will take the rest!

now my mind is so big.

the moon and the sun should be matching cards, with kuroko standing w his hand outstretched for a fistbump, dark colors and the moon is illuminating the sky and this might be on a streetball court and the sun is kagami opposite kuroko and if you put the cards together their hands connect because they are the LIGHT AND SHADOW DUO!!! kagami gets a sun and a beauitful sunrise while kuroko gets a sky full of constellations and anyway its sexy

judgement - hyuuga throwing the final free throw during the rakuzen match.

the world - the final shot of the last game movie, with the miracles in their vorpal swords uniform and seirin versing them. or maybe its everyone huddled in kurokos house for his birthday - or maybe everyone is in their vorpal swords uniforms in a huddle! its not about the game its not about fate its about hard work and teamwork.

THANKS MY WHOLE ENTIRE MIND.

#ref #i wanna find this post again my whole mind.

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madeulookbylex · 7 years

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10 Marketing Books You Should Read In 2017

Image: Shutterstock / Rawpixel.com

Interview after interview with top performers tends to reveal similar daily habits: an early wake time; a regular exercise regimen; and a designated time for reading.

Reading a lot wont necessarily make you a great leader, but it seems great leaders tend to read a lot with rare exceptions. Great leaders read because its the most efficient way to gain the condensed information, guidance, and insights they need to excel at their jobs. Who wants to reinvent the wheel when others have provided the blueprint? This is especially valuable in the marketing world, where the challenges facing chief marketing officers and other marketers are changing daily.

If youre ready to take your marketing game to the next level, heres a rundown of 10 of the best new marketing books to dive into this year:

1. “They Ask You Answer” by Marcus Sheridan

Marcus Sheridan is a legend in the digital marketing world after he used content marketing to lift his failing pool company from the brink of bankruptcy to become one of the largest in the country. Sheridans strategy is based on two fundamental assumptions: your customers are smart readers who want you to educate them and your best resource for doing so (the internet) is free.

“They Ask You Answer” shows you how to become the authority theyre looking for and gain their trust, you need to think hard about who your customers are and what they want. What are they confused about? Afraid of? Longing for? What are their pain points and their dream scenarios?

Answer those questions with your content, and youll have a whole new cadre of brand ambassadors to do your advertising for you.

2. “Non-Obvious 2017” by Rohit Bhargava

Georgetown Professor and founder of the Influential Marketing Group, Rohit Bhargava is a self-professed non-obvious trend curator. His series has been tracking trends since 2011 in the areas of culture and consumer behavior, marketing and social media, media and education, technology and design, and economics and entrepreneurshipall of which digital marketers should be following.

“Non-Obvious 2017” identifies five brand new trendsincluding fierce femininity, passive loyalty, and moonshot entrepreneurship, and reviews over 60 trends from earlier editions, providing longevity predictions for each. Bhargava also teaches his readers the skills necessary to do what he doescut through the noise and identify the emerging trends and patterns others miss.

If you want your marketing to resonate (and who doesnt?), this is the book for you.

3. “SEO for Growth” by John Jantsch and Phil Singleton

Since Google is a crucial source of web traffic and lead generation, companies cant help but question how strong their search engine visibility really is. If you dont have a handle on the basics by now, or havent kept up with the many Google algorithm changes affecting your website, its time to get caught up.

John Jantsch and Phil Singleton put their years of experience and research to work for you, showing you how to leverage the new rules of search engine optimization to maximize your websites organic ranking potential.

From high-level strategy to tactics you can immediately implement, “SEO for Growth” is a must-read for marketers and entrepreneurs.

4. “Hug Your Haters” by Jay Baer

For Jay Baer, a complaining customer is not a companys problem, its one of their best assets.

Most unsatisfied customers wont ever tell you where you went wrong, leaving you guessing how to do better. But a complaining customer actually gives you a major opportunity for growth and corrective action. Far too many business care too little about retention, placing much emphasis on outbound marketing and the attraction of new customers, with comparatively little attention paid to the customers theyve already paid to get, writes Baer.

“Hug Your Haters” outlines the two types of haters any business is likely to come across, identifies what they want and tells you how to give it to them. And its full of concreteand hilariouscase studies so you can see their responses in action.

Follow their lead and youll be turning haters into brand advocates before your very eyes.

5. “Pre-Suasion” by Robert Cialdini Ph.D.

To truly persuade someone, according to Robert Cialdini, you need to do more than change their mind; you need to change their state of mind. In “Pre-Suasion”, the long-awaited sequel to his New York Times bestseller, “Influence,” Cialdini directs our attention to the time immediately preceding the message, or what he calls the privileged moment for change. It is at this crucial juncture when you can prime your target to be more receptive to your words. Get them in the right mindset, he argues, and they will be much more likely to agree with you. The book outlines tips and technique that you can use in a variety of contexts to convince people of your message, even before you say a word.

6. “Get Scrappy” by Nick Westergaard

Afraid you cant compete because youre a mom and pop shop in a big block store environment? Then youll take solace fromand find a useful roadmap inNick Westergaards “Get Scrappy”. Host of the popular On Brand podcast, Westergaards simple message is exactly what you want to hear: you can punch above your weight. More than just a collection of tips, he provides an entire system for scrappy marketing, starting with the steps you cant miss, how to do more with less, and concluding with simplifying your methods for the long haul. Its a practical guide to helping you achieve big results on a small budget.

7. “What Customers Crave” by Nicholas Webb

Nicholas Webb wants you to rethink customer service and your targeting mechanisms. Forget age, geographic location, or race, Webb argues. Its much more important to know what your customers love and what they hate. What customers truly crave are amazing experiences and you can only give them that if you know their likes and dislikes. For Webb, customer service is not a technical process; its a design process, and it demands innovation. He walks you through how to identify different customer types, so you can figure out how to create superior experiences across all of the different customer touch points. “What Customers Crave” will change the way you think about customer service and how to boost those conversion rates.

8. “Invisible Influence” by Jonah Berger

People assume they have much greater control over their decision making than they actually do. But as Wharton School Marketing Professor Jonah Berger demonstrates in “Invisible Influence”, the reality is that we are all subject to the power of social influence. Berger uncovers the forces that subtly shape our behavior and shows how, contrary to common belief, this is often a positive thing. As an example, Berger sites the social facilitation phenomenon, in which doing an activity with someone else (say running) helps us do it better (faster). And for those cases in which social influence is a hindrance to good decision making, such as in the case of group think, Berger provides practical tips for overcoming it. We may all be subject to invisible influences on our behavior, but just knowing what those are can put some of the power back in our hands.

9. “Hacking Marketing” by Scott Brinker

According to Scott Brinker, marketing systems are lagging behind the rapidly changing environment in which theyre operating. He identifies five digital dynamics (speed, adaptability, adjacency, scale, and precision) that have transformed the work of marketing, and proposes a relatively simple way of bringing order to the chaos. As marketing becomes more digital and marketers are increasingly reliant on software to do their jobs, the art of managing marketing increasingly resembles the art of managing software. Therefore, marketing managers should adopt the successful frameworks and processes software managers have already developed. “Hacking Marketing” provides a hands-on (and non-technical) guide to creating your own agile marketing processes and serves as a much-needed reminder that when our environment and tools have changed, our work processes should as well.

10. “Digital Sense” by Travis Wright and Chris Snook

Travis Wright and Chris Snook recognize that marketing today is all about customer service. And like Jay Baer, they see it as an age of opportunity. They have devised a whole new marketing system based on two frameworksThe Experience Marketing Framework and the Social Business Strategy Frameworkto help you understand and surpass customers expectations at every stage of the buyers journey and get all of your employees on board. Their learn, plan, do approach allows you to reach customers while also allowing for discover, design, deploy innovation to improve everyday operations. “Digital Sense” is full of data, exercises, and specialized knowledge to help you understand their approach and customize it to suit your needs.

These must-reads are fresh takes on our rapidly evolving field, chock full of guiding frameworks, helpful tactics, and actionable tips. Its a fair amount of homework, but it does promise a major return on the investment.

Josh Steimle is the author of Chief Marketing Officers at Work and the CEO of MWI, a digital marketing agency with offices in the US and Asia, and despite being over 40 can still do a kickflip on a skateboard.