Around the World in One Album

I am taking full advantage of it being summer, So if I revert back to only making 1 post per every couple of weeks or more, that’s my bad. I’ve got plenty that’s happened though, and plenty coming up, so let’s load out with some Updates and New News.

Like I said, school’s over and summer is in session. Verdict is back, and I’m sitting on solid B’s for the Spring Semester. I should have gotten an A in my RTF class, but…well, that one was my fault. The thing is, I missed taking my final in my RTF class. There was some bad information that got circulated around the class, and a number of us were made to believe that the exam was on a Friday…rather than a Monday. I’ve gone over it a dozen times in my mind; where did this start, who’s to blame, who will pay for this…etc. In the end, they let me make-up the exam with a maximum possible grade of a 70. I can’t really blame anyone but myself for that, the Final date was posted both in the book and online, and supposedly our teacher mentioned it as well. Bottom line, they let me make-up the final when they weren’t supposed to, so I’m thankful.

I’ve got a short little workation coming up. My buddy, the Master Bass-er, Jerry’s fiancee is moving in with him in Louisiana. She needs help moving all of her stuff out there, so a number of us have volunteered our services. That will be a nice little weekend, hopefully.

Akon is also looming right over the horizon. I’ve been looking forward to that for a while, but I’ve got to start getting busy with my cosplay. Proto Man ain’t anywhere near finished. That’s about 2 1/2 weeks out, so I really need to get cracking.

As y’all know, all to well, I’ve been putting a lot of hype around Linkin Park‘s upcoming new album, LIVING THINGS, and the single that is out now, BURN IT DOWN. If you haven’t yet, go HERE,  and you can pre-order the album, listen to the single, and sign up for a discounted year of LPU membership. You can also buy Honda Civic Tour tickets there now, but I’d advise finding somewhere else to buy them from. The tickets are pretty expensive via LinkinPark.com, and can be gotten much cheaper elsewhere.

Linkin Park has gotten very creative with the marketing for this new album. Aside from the traditional methods of marketing, they’ve begun this “scavenger hunt”, getting fans the world over involved in a bit a living, breathing method of marketing. It seems pretty cool, actually. I’ve always admired Linkin Park’s drive to give back to, and involve it’s fans it their exploits. Some of you might remember one of the first posts I made on this blog, asking for support for my submission in a “Pre-Mix” contest for The Catalyst, before the release of A Thousand Suns. That was a lot of fun, and Linkin Park keeps coming up with new ways to keep their fans involved, and part of the process. This scavenger hunt is another one of those…I’ll call it a plot device, leading up to the release of LIVING THINGS.

This scavenger hunt kicked off when Mike Shinoda tweeted on May 8th to stayed tuned at LinkinPark.com for news of something big coming up. That news came in the form of a video containing a map.

The map lead to a bar on the University of Sydney Union’s campus, in Sydney Australia, Manning Bar. It was late at night when the video posted, so it wasn’t until morning, on the 9th, that Australian LP fans figured out something was up, and made their way out to the bar to find out what was up. What they found was this.

A seemingly innocent enough promotion poster for LIVING THINGS. But when you read the QR code, it sent you to…

http://linkinpark.com/youdidittoyourself

…with this photo, advancing the scavenger hunt.

LPAssociation  members quickly translated that message for us, so the clue read:

“Last September, “A Thousand Horizons” took fans from all over the world here. May 10 or May 11. 11am-8pm only. Don’t be early. Don’t be late. One person only.”

Fans quickly did some research to conclude that the location indicated was NicoFarre Club, in Tokyo, Japan. Two Twitterers and LP fans received the next clue there on the 11th at 11AM, which was an envelope containing the following information.

It became clear that the next clue would be delivered to us from Allan (@youbetterhearme). He was reluctant at first, asking that he would be in a much more divulgatory mood if he were to acquire 3,000 followers. LP fans put the word out quickly that this dude needed followers, and plenty responded overnight. He in turn responded the next morning, on the 11th, by following 1 and only 1 person, @pmharper, the Prime Minister of Canada. He also changed his profile picture from the default egg, to that of which was immediately recognized as the Toronto skyline. It would seem that we had our hint of where the next clue would show up. A LPAssociation Member even made the stretch to say that there was a public park in Toronto, named Allan Park. After Allan goaded the Prime Minister all day and night, Allan finally tweeted the next day, on the 12th, that he needed to leave a clue somewhere under a bench in Toronto at 1 in the afternoon, and also tweeted this picture which sure enough was found to be Allan Park.

4 Twitterers showed up to search the entire park at 1PM on the 13th, and found nothing. At 2PM however, they were approached by a man, who asked if Allan had sent them. The 4 fans were handed the next clue, which turned out to be the following picture.

The internet quickly got to work, and found out that this picture was the Lincoln Park Zoo at Gateway Pavilion, in Chicago. The fans waited on bated breath for the 15th. Mike Shinoda tweeted the zoo that Linkin Park fans would be invading yesterday. I don’t know how many fans showed up, but the clue was found by a Twitterer who showed us that the clue was a Brazil shirt…

…with this written on the shirt’s tag.

This translates to, “The next clue is within the gates of Fort Copacabana. Take the opportunity to eat some traditional sweets, cakes and waffles. May 17, during normal business hours only.”

So, the hunt continues on, to the Forte de Copacabana, found to be in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I’d love to slink down to Brazil for a couple of days…but, no. No buts. Hell, you know me, I don’t have that kind of money. I just have to continue to let the rest of the world’s Linkin Park fans do what they do.

If the clues lead back to DFW at any point, be sure that I’ll be there, ready to serve as the next link in the chain. And if not, well, I’ll keep promoting regardless.

Keep your heads up, your minds sharp, and your hearts open.

– The Outlaw

This Time, Do It…Better

Afternoon ladies and gents! Thanks for coming back. I missed you <3. I’ve hit Dead Week at school finally. This semester has been so long, but it’s just about over. It’ll nice to have a little more time on my hands. More time to watch more TV…with extremely poor commercials. And that brings us to tonights word…Equipment Misuse

Oh wait, that’s Stephen Colbert’s thing. My bad. Dang, now I’ve got to return all those set dressings.
Equipment Misuse…things I see in media that just annoy me to all ends. I see things every day that just make me wonder…why? This is so…wrong. You need to go back and fix this. I have 2 things for you today.

1) Commercials that have virtually nothing to do with their product.

Have you ever seen that commercial, and wondered immediately afterwards, “What the hell just happened right there?” Here is a prime example. If they didn’t toss up the name of the product at the beginning or the end, I would have had no idea what was being advertised in the first place.

I’m thinking all the way through that, maybe this is some futuristic sports movie, like Real Steel or Hunger Games, but no. Just an off the wall vodka commercial. This commercial is bad, but it is by no means the worst.

You’ve all probably seen this commercial before, but try and step back for a moment and try and figure out what is being advertised before the last five seconds.

Car commercials are another prime example of the, “What are they adver…oh, okay”ism. Everyone will recognize this one, and though we know what is being advertised here, KIA is really starting to push their limits here.

That’s not nearly as bad as the perfume commercial, but you see where I’m going here. There are a lot of car commercial Directors/Producers nowadays that would like to think themselves as artists far more than is necessary. This is a commercial. You have a product to advertise, and it should be the primary focus of the commercial. Yea, leaving someone “What the f***?”ing at the end of a commercial will make them remember it, but in 30 minutes they won’t remember the product, just the WTF the commercial showcased. Guys, product first.

In kind of the same way, you can have a product play second fiddle to a bunch of gimmicks and clichés. Is the car the real focus in this next commercial?

Here’s another thing that annoys the hell out of me.

2) TV/Movie trailers that completely spoil the episode/movie they are advertising.

I saw this ad for the Series Finale of In Plain Sight the other day.

Okay, they dropped a huge bomb right there. The ole L word got thrown around there. That’s one of the biggest plot twists in the series, and you wanna throw it out there in the preview? Ugh, now nothing will be left up to the imagination.

Movies can be even worse. This trailer I saw for “The Cabin In The Woods” pretty much gave away the entire movie. I don’t need to see the movie at all anymore. I could give you a complete plot synopsis after a 2 1/2 minute trailer. But don’t trust me, see it for yourself.

It’s important that you grab your potential audience and get them to come back, but you can do that without giving up all the vital information. There’s plenty of ways to do it; show some non-distinct action, hell, you could just show a girl whimpering and the screaming bloody murder. That would put asses in seats.

You don’t need to be a self-indulgent artistic wiener to push some products. You also don’t have to tell an entire story, to get people to come back to watch you retell an entire story…again.

I know I’m not the only one that sees this stuff, and just shakes their head. This ain’t the first, and it definitely won’t be the last, so count on my being back eventually with more media stuff that ticks me off. I don’t know what I have next for y’all, but I’ll try to keep it coming.

Keep your heads up, your minds sharp, and your hearts open.

– The Outlaw