The World According To Frank

       The world is an interesting place, and sometimes the way I view it even more so. I have an awkward way of taking something, and pulling it to an absurdity, and then bundling it back together. It is the thing from which comedy is born, this ability to look at the absurd. An absurdity is a thing that is extremely unreasonable, so as to be foolish or not taken seriously, or the state of being so. This is comedy, and this is a main concept of being Frank. This absurdity is all around us, and can be yours to laugh at if you choose to look hard enough. It really is not that hard to find. Here, I'll give you a freebie. Just watch Bugs Bunny slam Yosemite Sam's face into a frying pan. The way his face comes out in the shape of the pan!? Yeah.. absurdity at work! I would say this is an outlook born of Love, an ability to laugh at the world that I see. Upon hearing this, people tend to look at me and say... Frank, you are out there.






       To which I look them right back, in the eye, and I say,


"Well, I can't wait for you to be here. It's a hell of a view!"

"Love wins. Love always wins." - Morrie Schwartz

Love always wins. It goes unnoticed by some through the day, but Love always wins somewhere. It just won someplace right now. In life. In realities real and created. In fiction. In non-fiction. In science fiction. Morrie put a simple tag on this waging war called "a tension of opposites." Morrie goes on to describe it as a "pull on a rubber band. And most of us live somewhere in the middle."

I believe Morrie is telling us all that no matter where you are on the rubber band, when you are on the side of love, you will prevail.

Like when Princess Leia says, "I love you." to Han Solo before he is frozen in carbonite, and loses him to the bounty hunter. LOVE reunites the Princess and Solo when she rescues him from Jabba the Hutt. Love wins.

In Braveheart, a couple is married out of a life long love that started with the innocence of youth. After the untimely death of his love, William Wallace channels that love to conquer a country for his people, so that those countrymen may love freely. Through that freedom of a nation, and his death, William Wallace is able to be reunited with his love, and in eternity, enjoy marital bliss. Love wins.

In the movie, The Notebook, when a man moves into the home where his wife is suffering from Alzheimer, so he can read the stories of her notebook, so she can remember him. This is love conquering Alzheimer's. Love wins

In Love Actually, when a father helps his son win the affections of a girl, because the father is reliving what it was like to fall in love with the wife and mother they both have just lost, love has been transcended and reborn, even through death. Love wins. 

Right now, at this very moment, a girl is giving a boy their first kiss, and a new love is born.

Right now, at this very moment, an old woman is giving a dying man a kiss goodbye, and their love is just as strong as the day it was born.

Love wins.

Morrie's Mantra: "Love each other or die."

CHAOS AND DISORDER

Candle flicker makes a movietime sequence
Humid thoughts stretched between
Anticipate the unveiling of a menagerie's beam
Outstretched from a shell to gasp breathe again
Senses aware pondering if I'm me again

Alas a stalemate we are at now
Neandratholled thoughts all around
Dare I stand erect to rejoin the race

Derelict's score bags for their feet
I'm just an experiencing veiwer amongst the streets
Searching am I for escape from the nite
Ongoing through the sludge of strife
Rear and buck fight and not be broken
Detour the time towards cemented images
Encounter the fortunes many do possess
Riches only come if you survive the test

Fire Falls

Fire Falls

The fury of fire

Suns golden rays 

Cascading life

Ending the days

Time sets the angle

A view from below

The suns inner core

Encased with a luminous glow

Solar show of energies giving life

Display incandescent rights

Free forming falling friends

Fire and Ice forming a blend

In the valley of Yosemite

There is nothing to hear but the majestic call

Where, and When you stand at the end of the day

A sense of wonder

As witness

To Horsetail Falls

This Bud's for You... literally.

In advertising, a hook captures the potential customer's attention and draws them in. An effective hook makes your company and its products memorable long after they've seen your ad. The following commercials are a couple of examples of how Budweiser uses their marketing campaigns. Quite honestly, in my opinion, these tv ads are awesome!

The first commercial is called "Eternal Optimism" and it is aimed at the masses, both men and woman.



Starting with Prohibition Is Over, to the end of WWII - 50's Rock 'n Roll to the landing on the moon - Club parties in the Disco Era evolve into the Miracle on Ice to start the 80's. 80's Break Dancing becomes Crowd Surfing in the 90's Grunge scene within Seattle's pubs, to our current style of DJ's partying on the rooftops with the crowd below, dancing and having a good time. Actually having a "Great Time". -- which is the hook. If you want to have a great time to the magnitude of the historical events you have just seen flashing before your eyes, then you need to be drinking Budweiser. The hook here highlights American achievements throughout history, with the assurance of more to come. Great Times Are Always Waiting...Grab Some Buds!



The second commercial is a Television advertisement on NBC for the 2012 London Olympics, and again is aimed at the masses, targeting men and women, young and old.

With the magic and wonder of hopeful athletes competing for glory in a wide array of individual and team competitions, Budweiser wants you to know that they proudly support the US Olympic Team and its members on their quest for gold. Budweiser letting you know that they support American traditions of excellence. Letting you know that your American Pride can be helping American Athletes; when you buy American beer, you buy a beer from a company who will use the proceeds to help America Win.

Budweiser is a proud sponsor of the U.S. Olympic team.

So whether it is in their advertisements, 

or an ice cold one in your hand - remember...

THIS BUD'S FOR YOU!

Fate May Ride the Bus

So it started a couple of weeks ago when I got on the bus. I set down and looked across from me and made eye contact with this beautiful girl sitting there a couple of rows back. Couple of smiles were exchanged. Flash forward about a week and a half, I get on the bus and see the same girl again (trust me you can't miss her, she is cute as hell), but again she is a couple of rows off to my side, I smile again, and she smiles back. We travel the route together again and she gets off at her stop, we both exchange polite smiling nods. I remember thinking to myself if I see her again I'm just gonna say hi. So today as I got on the bus to school to go do some studying, I see this beautiful girl, and the seat in front of her is open! I sat down and paid her a nice complement. I said "I have seen you a few times on the bus and I just wanted to mention that I dig your style. Every time I see you, you're wearing something cute. I'd like to introduce myself my name is Frank." She beamed and smiled. I think I caught her off guard. But she looked at me, smiled, and introduced herself. We ended up talking the whole bus ride. Cool start to the day. Really cool start!!

To be Private, do you need to be Secretive?

I do have thoughts on this premise, but I am keeping them private. Secretive. You can find what my thoughts are on this page by finding something hidden. This way it stays our little secret! 


When you are trying to protect your privacy, you are more than likely worried about doing the things that you want to do, but are worried that others might not like what you are doing or why. At this point I believe we become secretive I know I'm not going to stop doing something I enjoy. We then find ways of hiding the things that bring some sort of engaging quality to us, from the others that might judge us. That is why I have hidden this message, I was inclined to conceal intentions and to not disclose the information --except to the worthy.

Class readings and the thoughts they have provoked.

The Technology Age, and our place among the systems we use is an interesting, if not mercurial evolution. I say among, not within, because I believe there to be a big difference. Seems to me that so many of the articles that we have been reading in class, from Robin Dunbar's You Gotta Have (150) Friends, to Peggy Orenstein's I Tweet, Therefore I Am, feel that they have to project this persona within these communities. My first thought on that is, don't we tend to do that in the physical world as well? How is it so different from social media? In everyday life you see people that are trying to project an image for all to see. The guy driving the new car is trying to show you his stature in his workplace. The guy, or girl dressed to the nines to draw attention to themselves showing their current trendiness is trying to fit into a society riddled with fashion awareness. Let's go deeper -- the wolf in sheep's clothing, a priest who projects the protection of the cloth, and yet hides sinister urges. How is this any different from the profiles you see among the site you belong too? Even the sinister lies you fear. I get that there is even more people, yet funneled into a more focused arena of this media, but an arena that you have control over. Shouldn't we be talking about how to assert the right and wrongs that we have learned in life and how to apply them in this alternate format that mirrors the physical world problems that we still face everyday? It is like the movie Tron... YOU are the USER people. Act like it, use your discretion, and above all remember, you are an individual in both the virtual and physical realms. The hardest thing to do in either world is be yourself.

Encouragement

Welcome!

Although I do write for myself and my enjoyment, my hope is that you will find it entertaining as well.

Please feel free to leave comments on anything you have read. 

The Giver - Thoughts while I read.

       I have been reading The Giver by Lois Lowry as a reading assignment, and find a number of quick things come to mind while I am reading. The first is the feel of the writers pace. Lowry peels back the layers as he writes, slowly unfolding the story step by step, clue by clue, and leaving you with an edgy feeling that something is amiss the whole time. I am about to start Chapter 15, and I am just waiting for the proverbial shoe to drop, and reveal that what is behind the curtain is sinister and appalling. I have faith it will. The faith comes from my second thought, or feeling rather, that I have while reading this book. Even though the publication date is 1993, The Giver has a story telling style that I experienced before from other novelist. Science Fiction novelists from the 30's, through to the 60's had a distinctive style of drama to their stories unraveling events, and Lois Lowry's work is almost an homage to the likes of Arthur C. Clarke and Ray Bradbury. I swear it is like the secret handshake that these writers learn at a convention we are not privy too, that they have this ability to stylize and captivate us in the way that they do.  

Spring has Sprung!

     Spring is springing up all around me right now. It has sprung a leak, and is seeping into my psyche more and more each day.

     Just like some old Disney cartoon, you see couples emerging from being hunkered down through a cold winter and showing their love for each other. I have noticed this courtship custom everywhere I go recently, of course, no more so than on Valentine's Day that has just passed. Ah, young love in bloom.

     Here in California we do not exactly get four seasons, so we have to rely on little things that are noticeable around us. I have been noticing the Sun a lot more in recent days. Days that are longer with the Sun's presence! With the Equinox, comes the ritual of greener hills and blooming flowers. Here in California we have a beautiful State Flower that provides fields of vibrant color for us to enjoy. A signature statement of Spring in bloom.

      O.K., I have been waiting to get to this point because I have seen one more sign of the season that is SO obvious to me! It is one of the ceremonial announcements of Spring, and is heralded by the trumpeted sound of people everywhere, (sometimes literally) and wouldn't you know, it carries the same name in it's title. That is right! Spring Training is here. A tell tale sign post that Spring is upon us. Here things bloom as well, even if they are of a different nature. The habits of fans and players start to spring to life, in the hopes and dreams that bloom from the birth of a new season on the horizon.

  

     Take a look around you today, or tonight, and see if there are things in your everyday life that are trying to tell you about the change of season. Is it sunny warm days, with chilly nights? Is it love in the air? Or could it possibly be a hot dog and a cold one in your hand while you enjoy the sounds of the park? (I know for San Francisco Giants Fans it is, and hopefully will be again this year!) I hope the details that you notice are beautiful, and when Spring has sprung for you, enjoy the season. See you at the park!

Six Words Defining My Life Story

Born Smiling, Laughing Along The Way.

The Week of Hype Begins!

Superbowl is coming this weekend, and The Big Red Machine is firing up on all cylinders to destroy the Ravens. I can't even begin to contain my enthusiasm for this game. It's gonna be a hard hitting affair. Its pitting brother against brother, in a battle of biblical proportions. Cain vs Abel, John vs. Jim... It's Harbaugh-Geddon!!