Longest Super Bowl commercial in history. That's the word after Chrysler unleashed its Eminem hosted homage to Detroit onto the Super Bowl viewing audience. It's very Hollywood. And the people here in Detroit and the surrounding metro area, as well as born-n-breds living abroad, ate it up like ice cream on the 4th.
Cinematography wise, it was pure genius. Politically, though, and morally...not to mention financially? In poor taste. Chrysler is still very much in debt to the US government and, I might add, anything but an American company anymore. They are the poster company for precariously teetering on the edge of calamity.
And then there are the Detroit politics of it. The narrator of the commercial intones that Detroit 'has been to hell and back'. What exactly is the measure mark to qualify as being 'back'? Simply declaring you're back like the Backstreet Boys did? Last time I checked, Detroit was still in a free fall in all ways vital to survival and succeeding: education, financial, employment, crime, housing, the list goes on and Detroit is still failing in every category. Perhaps the ad agency is still under the impression that the auto industry alone defines the success/failure of the D.
Then there are the morals of it. Many people were quoted on local news stations saying the commercial brought them to tears. Which is pretty repulsive when a person cracks open the Detroit Free Press or turns on the local news and is confronted with all of the horrors and violence against innocents every day in Detroit. Less than a week after the Super Bowl, two people were arrested for child abuse after a child was thrown against a window so hard the entire window was cracked. And only a few weeks before, a lone gunman launched a heinous attack on a Detroit police station, opening fire on the officers working to protect the city. Save your tears for something that merits it, not a commercial that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy or defiant and smug about a city that's in full on decay in every fiber of its being.
Now the previous reasons don't amount to a hill of beans to anyone outside the state of Michigan. But the cost, and squandering, of taxpayer dollars should be noteworthy to every taxpayer in America. Bottom line is every single one of us picked up the tab for that balls to the wall commercial. And while some may be indifferent because companies need to advertise, I for one would prefer for Chrysler to keep its caviar tastes to itself until it is able to pay back the government and pay back Americans. They are stewards of money loaned to them to survive and thrive on and while advertisement is a prime example of what is needed to survive, the longest commercial in Super Bowl history with a top dollar celebrity as the star is not level headed stewardship. And while it's a nice red carpet walk and Oscar speech shout out for Detroit, it doesn't match up with reality and that's what Detroiters should be most concerned with.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Straws
Maybe it's the lingering frigid temperatures, maybe it's tundra fever but this week was the week of superficial annoyances bubbling to the surface, bordering on outrage. I think sometimes it's the order of things---people can only internalize so much and then it's the simplest things, paltry injustices that are the last straw.
Last night while reviewing the TV headlines, I came across an article stating that NBC released a statement saying that they were putting LOLA (Law & Order Los Angeles) on indefinite hiatus because of restructuring. Further into the article ,which detailed why LOLA's expected return to prime time the first week of February, it was explained that half the cast including Skeet Ulrich whose detective main character has been an anchor in the burgeoning show had been let go. The LOLA Powers That Be were retooling the remaining characters and casting new ones. Alfred Molina's character who was a head honcho at the DA's office was being 'reassigned' to the detective beat (cause you know, that happens all the time in real life). All of this drama and the show's barely 6 months green.
After reading this, a lot of irritation started percolating in me. I have quite the history with L & O, being a loyal viewer since the early days (for both of us). Tried and true fan of the original series with occasional road trips into Criminal Intent country. So I was devastated when NBC went against its original promise of keeping L & O on for a record breaking 21st season, edging out Gunsmoke as the longest running TV series. Instead they bent over for the umpteenth time for whiny, insecure, only funny to look at Jay Leno in giving him the 10 o'clock spot on every week night. They also threw Southland, a phenomenal newbie cop drama to the wolves in their declaration of love to Leno. And I don't need to retell the gripping drama/soap opera that played out in real life because of that move. All I can say is that without it, Team Coco would have no meaning. And when Jay Leno's latest ego massage crashed and burned (like we all knew it would), NBC in all of its severe trangressions' humiliating glory had a lot of time slots to fill.
And that is where LOLA enters and from whence it was conceived. I had planned on hating it. L & O was always New York to me. NYC was as integral to the franchise as the haunting sound echoed between scenes or the comforting specter of Jerry Orbach. While NYC is edged by an ocean, its gritty streets were the forefront of the show, not coastline which made LOLA's ever present beaches extremely out of place. Or one would think. To this viewer, during the first 6 months, California's beaches gave the franchise another aspect and gave it a different edge. And Ulrich's no nonsense, by the book detective echoed the sensibility and rugged good looks of Benjamin Bratt while his wise cracking partner, a younger incarnation of the ornery yet lovable Lenny Briscoe. So what does reinventing LOLA halfway through a rocky first year mean for the latest L & O offspring? To me, nothing good. New series don't usually do retooling until after the first season wraps as it wants to create good buzz and reliable viewing ASAP. Viewers can't connect with a constant revolving door of characters and core premises. This speaks of frantic water treading or grasping at straws. And to more than impatient NBC, I doubt they will grant LOLA a mulligan. And NBC could have saved itself all of this time, trouble and money if it had just told Leno to shove off after his original 'retirement' and kept Jack McCoy and Company in operation.
My second grievance this week is a little more cerebral, having to do with the ongoing strike between the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's musicians and the DSO Powers That Be. The DSO announced wage cuts of 30% last fall at which time the musicians began their strike. And so the strike carried on through the holidays, crippling surrounding businesses like restaurants and killing one of their most important seasons. All this while the new curator at the Detroit Institute of Art (DIA) announced that he discovered and verified that more than a few paintings thought to be originals are fakes. What the hell is going on with the last gasps of culture in Detroit?
Last night while reviewing the TV headlines, I came across an article stating that NBC released a statement saying that they were putting LOLA (Law & Order Los Angeles) on indefinite hiatus because of restructuring. Further into the article ,which detailed why LOLA's expected return to prime time the first week of February, it was explained that half the cast including Skeet Ulrich whose detective main character has been an anchor in the burgeoning show had been let go. The LOLA Powers That Be were retooling the remaining characters and casting new ones. Alfred Molina's character who was a head honcho at the DA's office was being 'reassigned' to the detective beat (cause you know, that happens all the time in real life). All of this drama and the show's barely 6 months green.
After reading this, a lot of irritation started percolating in me. I have quite the history with L & O, being a loyal viewer since the early days (for both of us). Tried and true fan of the original series with occasional road trips into Criminal Intent country. So I was devastated when NBC went against its original promise of keeping L & O on for a record breaking 21st season, edging out Gunsmoke as the longest running TV series. Instead they bent over for the umpteenth time for whiny, insecure, only funny to look at Jay Leno in giving him the 10 o'clock spot on every week night. They also threw Southland, a phenomenal newbie cop drama to the wolves in their declaration of love to Leno. And I don't need to retell the gripping drama/soap opera that played out in real life because of that move. All I can say is that without it, Team Coco would have no meaning. And when Jay Leno's latest ego massage crashed and burned (like we all knew it would), NBC in all of its severe trangressions' humiliating glory had a lot of time slots to fill.
And that is where LOLA enters and from whence it was conceived. I had planned on hating it. L & O was always New York to me. NYC was as integral to the franchise as the haunting sound echoed between scenes or the comforting specter of Jerry Orbach. While NYC is edged by an ocean, its gritty streets were the forefront of the show, not coastline which made LOLA's ever present beaches extremely out of place. Or one would think. To this viewer, during the first 6 months, California's beaches gave the franchise another aspect and gave it a different edge. And Ulrich's no nonsense, by the book detective echoed the sensibility and rugged good looks of Benjamin Bratt while his wise cracking partner, a younger incarnation of the ornery yet lovable Lenny Briscoe. So what does reinventing LOLA halfway through a rocky first year mean for the latest L & O offspring? To me, nothing good. New series don't usually do retooling until after the first season wraps as it wants to create good buzz and reliable viewing ASAP. Viewers can't connect with a constant revolving door of characters and core premises. This speaks of frantic water treading or grasping at straws. And to more than impatient NBC, I doubt they will grant LOLA a mulligan. And NBC could have saved itself all of this time, trouble and money if it had just told Leno to shove off after his original 'retirement' and kept Jack McCoy and Company in operation.
My second grievance this week is a little more cerebral, having to do with the ongoing strike between the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's musicians and the DSO Powers That Be. The DSO announced wage cuts of 30% last fall at which time the musicians began their strike. And so the strike carried on through the holidays, crippling surrounding businesses like restaurants and killing one of their most important seasons. All this while the new curator at the Detroit Institute of Art (DIA) announced that he discovered and verified that more than a few paintings thought to be originals are fakes. What the hell is going on with the last gasps of culture in Detroit?
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