Black Marks on Wood Pulp 4.0

February 29, 2008

When I started this blog, I did so with no anticipation of making it a long term commitment. I wrote when I felt the need, about what was on my mind. I threw together a design and called it good. I never imagined I would actually keep up with it. Hell, I had a hard time reading a short novel at that point in time.

Yet, within a year, I was writing two book columns and roughly 35 blog posts a month. So I guess it stuck. And with the content, it was only natural that books became an integral part of the site – up to 30% of the content was literature related, in some way. With little time available to adapt a theme, I often resorted to some simple font changes and a new header picture.

Nearly three years later, Black Marks on Wood Pulp has become something I take great pride in. And with that pride came a creeping embarrassment at the design I had simply thrown together. It was time for a new look – something elegant, something simple, something that illustrated my desire to grow as a writer and be taken seriously as a member of the blogosphere.

And this is it. You’re looking at the newest version of Black Marks on Wood Pulp.

The tree? Well, to tell you the truth, I think it looks cool. But if you asked me the symbolism behind it, I’m sure I’d tell you something about my connection with the world around me, about how I write about whatever I see, about how I long to keep growing, and a bunch of other hippie crap. But really, all of my passions have come, in some weird way, from trees – from my days as a prospective biology teacher to my love of books and other paper bound words.

Don’t get me wrong – I just love the simplicity of it. And, again, I think it looks cool.

I’ve even come up with two logos: the tree itself and the acronym treatment. Because, for once, I think this has the legs to stick around for a while. And though it’s not a marvel in Web technique or design, it’s a million times better than the maroon boxy mess I had stuck with for two years.

Wow. It’s amazing what a little simple design can do to a person’s pride.

Shack-ing up with the past

February 28, 2008

The power of an old message can be rather surprising.

I’ve seen a sudden spike in interest for my mini three-part rant on Radio Shack, a nearly two-year-old sore spot that has since dissipated into consumer lore like an Alka Seltzer. The main issue: a local Radio Shack store sold us a Sirius satellite radio receiver under erroneous pretenses and, when pressed, made little effort to help us.

I was pretty angry – and totally duped – about the situation, and after three months I finally just wrote a letter to the district manager.

I didn’t expect much. But I was a dissatisfied customer making his voice heard. I am a multi-year veteran of retail and know that, as an employee, your ultimate job is to make your customer happy. You may not like it. You may not do it. And your bosses might not even care. But it’s your job, or at least it should be.

Though it may be a long lost chivalric deed nowadays, I still feel that a retail establishment has a duty to its customers, if only because those customers ultimately keep a store in business.

Anyway, I received a response (after finding my own solution) and found it lacking. A few hours later, I got a call from the district manager with a personal apology – an apology that I was both surprised and pleased to receive. It was the way customer service should be – filled with actual concern and not just simple avoidance. I held a grudge for about six months, then (naturally) gave in and started shopping at Radio Shack again.

I’m not old fashioned, I hope. I think a company best maintains its brand by promoting positive customer experiences. I didn’t ask for anything more than respect, and I didn’t offer anything but my disappointment. I posted the letter and responses to let others know what I had gone through, to see if I was the only one, to see if I could rouse up some solidarity.

My posts returned several types of comments.
1. Other customers who were equally upset.
2. Employees of Radio Shack who corroborated my issues.
3. Employees of Radio Shack who tried to justify the issue by saying, “What do you expect? We’re here to sell things.”

A great number of responses were either of a “Radio Shack Iz Dum!” or, even worse, “Yer Dum!” nature. I fought for my position when needed and still feel I was justified. I passed off moronic and insulting comments as immaturity. I was at ease with my thoughts, and as nearly two years passed, and I figured the ordeal was in the past.

It wasn’t. Thanks Google.

Go ahead. Search “Radio Shack Sucks.” See what you get. There’s a good chance it looks like this:

Yup. That’s me. #1. The old URL, too – cdub.driscocity.com, not blackmarks.net. You get the same post and the same comments either way. Amazingly, the comments have gotten more pro-Radio Shack. And the reasoning goes back to #3 above: What do you expect? We’re here to sell things!

Please. Most of us want to be treated with respect when we enter a store. Unfortunately, that respect can be difficult to find. There’s a large number of retail employees who might not care about the customers they serve – and who can blame them? It’s hard to care when you’re being paid peanuts, or when you’re pressured to make sales above and beyond the capacity of the community.

But does that make it okay? Do the ends justify the means? Are we really supposed to simply shrug our shoulders and accept the fact that, sometimes, at some stores, we’re going to be lied to in order to appease some corporate sales level?

Whatever. Unless I lock the comments, I’m sure I’ll continue to get comments from both sides. I’m at peace with the situation, and most of the comments I continue to get are rather funny. In fact, I’ve helped those coming to the page by added links to the other posts – now readers won’t assume the letter was the last word. Now readers can follow the situation to its thrilling conclusion.

And I can sit back and revel in the fact that I’m #1 in terms of such a seemingly common theme – corporation malaise; the hatred for the big – a search term that could rank in the top ten of “INSERT STORE” Sucks, somewhere after Best Buy Sucks and WalMart Sucks.

I have to be careful though. In the grand scheme of things, I’d hate for this mini-rant to be my legacy.

Site update (in the works) – 2.27.08

February 27, 2008

For those who don’t get their BMOWP through RSS, you’ll have to forgive me if the site looks messed up today. I’m working on adapting a theme and, naturally, I’ll be cluttering up the site looking for the right settings and all of that.

Thanks for understanding.

Garfield Minus Garfield

February 26, 2008

It’ll be light for the next few days. I’m still feeling a little bit of a posting hangover after last week’s Oscar ExtravaganzaFest.

Until then, check out what life is like for Jon when Garfield is away: Garfield Minus Garfield.

From the site:

“Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolor disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life?”

Life has never looked so lonely for Jon. I can’t tell if these are hilarious or really sad. I feel both ways.

Via bookslut.

The (Oscar) Week at Misc. Asst.

February 24, 2008

A few movie themed entries popped up over at Misc. Asst. over the past two weeks. Check them out.

2/13

Top 10 Movies of All Time – Dave
A week early in support of the writers strike.

2/25

Inaccurate Vernacular: Top 10 Foreign Language Films – John
IV’s back (finally!) with the top ten films in languages I never bothered to learn.

My Favorite Movies – Fargo

February 23, 2008

Fargo (1996)

How we think of movies depends on the atmosphere in which we first see them.

I first noticed this with books. And I believe it holds up well with movies. Like books, your surroundings and your place in life weigh heavily into your enjoyment. A comfortable couch vs. a slimy movie chair; a freewheeling summer during college vs. a period marred by a difficult breakup; an emotional harmony with the main character vs. a complete dissonance.

Movies are driven by our feelings, and because we’re directly connected to those feelings, movies become real and likable. What seems like a simply visual medium is actually tempered with emotion – an emotion that brings us to tears or sends us into fits of laughter.

For this reason, I never flinch when someone tells me their favorite movie. It could be something I find too traditional or too easy. It could be a movie I saw and hated. Those are my emotions. Not theirs. So what if someone’s favorite movie is Titanic, or Batman & Robin. They have their reasons.

And with Fargo, I have mine.

Fargo is a movie about a blustery cold winter in Minnesota. And a bunch of murders. And a pregnant police woman. And an over-exaggerated accent. It’s a quirky movie about double crossing and crime and trust, and it’s all set on the frozen plains of Minneapolis and Brainerd – an unlikely setting for a classic film, no doubt.

To this day, I still don’t know what stuck so solidly in my mind about the movie. I was blown away the first time I saw it, at a theater in Sioux Falls with a group of close high school friends. I didn’t think movies like Fargo were made, sarcastic and funny and at the same time symbolic and serious.

It was the first time I had ever heard the term “dry humor.” I loved it, and still do. I love the bleak, cold, empty scenes along the Minnesota highways. I love the struggle between Gaear Grimsrud and Carl Showalter, the harebrained schemes, the unraveling of reality and the shocking, yet incredibly funny final scenes.

Ultimately, Fargo is an insanely original film. There’s nothing like it. It brought the mystery back into neo noir and made dry humor popular again. It helped bridge that weird area between late 80s-mid 90s mass produced comedy and today’s embrace of dramedies with indie sensibilities. Fargo was one of a kind, and I rooted for it. I got behind it, like a candidate that had no chance of winning and – surprise! – made a solid showing at the polls.

Maybe that’s the connection. Fargo is wonderful, a movie for the ages, justifiably selected for AFI’s 100 Years, 100 Movies and wrongfully left off of the updated list. It’s a who’s who of character actors and an award winning script. It was an odd choice for classic status, but it forged ahead and made its mark on the landscape, both reintroducing the world to Francis McDormand and saving the careers of the Coen brothers.

And all I could do was root for it, cheer it on as it went on an improbable run through the Oscars and onto the shelves, packaged in a special edition complete with a bloody wood chipper snow globe.

Fargo is everything I like about movies. There isn’t an aspect of the movie that’s out of place. Every item on my wish list is covered. It was the right time. It was with the right people. And it has held up against time itself.

Don’t ‘cha know?

Top Five Coen Brothers Movies that Aren’t Miller’s Crossing or No Country for Old Men

1. Fargo (1996) – See above.

2. The Big Lebowski (1998) – I see how many lists this has made over the past week and wonder why it didn’t make the cut. If I did my eleven favorites instead of ten, it would be on the list.

3. Raising Arizona (1987) – If Adaptation is one of two Cage movies I can stand, this is the other.

4. O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) – A great soundtrack mixed with a clever adaptation. This was the beginning of my George Clooney mancrush. Dapper Dan!

5. The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) – It was a big budget failure, but I still kind of like it. It has much lower expectations when first watched on HBO.

My Movie List – Eric Swanson

February 22, 2008

Eric Swanson has been a close friend ever since I let him copy off of my Algebra papers. Now, he runs through blogs like they’re cordwood, starting and killing at least five in the past three years, including “Letters to Keith Law,” “Letters to Famous Nouns,” and countless others that have been lost to the blogosphere dunk tank. He also plays guitar.

I was going to do a list of my ten favorite movie characters, but everybody knows that Walter Sobchak (The Big Lebowski) and Doc Holliday (Tombstone) are sweet. So I’m not doing that. Here’s something I really know and love: my top ten movies that some people think suck, but are actually great (a.k.a. awesomely bad).

These are in no particular order, except for number one.

1. Point Break – Oh man what a great movie. Seriously, I think that the best five dollars I have ever spent was on a copy of this movie at Target. Too many great things to mention and we’ve all seen it, so I won’t add more.

Hard to pick my favorite quote but here goes.
Johnny Utah – “I’M AN FBI AGENT!”

2. Red Dawn – I have often wished that I could watch this movie for the first time again. When the Commies parachute in and start blowing kids and teachers away- pure cinema gold!

The quote was easy for this one.
Various – “WOLVERINES!”

3. National Treasure – I saw this movie in the cheap theater and it is awesome. I don’t know what it is about Nic Cage, but I am willing to watch him go through the most ridiculous situations (see also #s 4 and 7)

Alyson and I laughed out loud in the theater at this quote.
Young Ben Gates – “Are we knights?”

4. Face/Off – This movie would have been an easy pick for number one if not for Point Break. Nic Cage Rulz (when he’s in action movies). I gonna take a break here and watch this movie.

Lots of sweet quotes including Travolta being lame, but I like this one
Dietrich – “Hey Sean, How’s your dead son?”

5. The Rundown – People laugh at me when I tell them this movie is sweet. Then, The Rock takes out a building with his shoulder. ‘Nuff said.

Quote
The Rock’s shoulder – “BOOM!” (building falls down.)

6. Bloodsport - What needs to be said about this movie? Not a lot. Frank Dux enters a fighting tournament called The Kumite and fights a bunch of weird guys.

Quote
Some Weird looking guy – “OK USA”

7. Con Air – Nic Cage is sweet and this movie also has Steve Buscemi, Ving Rhames, John Cusak, John Malkovich and even Dave Chapelle. Plus, the plane totally drags a Corvette through the air and takes out the Hard Rock Cafe. C’mon, you can’t argue with that.

Quote
Cameron Poe – “Put..the bunny…back…in the box”

8. The Running Man – Arnold is forced to enter a future game show where prisoners run from weird gladiator types, including a lite-brite guy! And Richard Dawson is in it!

Quote
Ben Richards – “I’m not into politics, I’m into survival.”

9. The Mummy – I couldn’t decide whether to include this, or Bad Boys 2. I like this one a little better, so I went with this. It’s awesome and it’s funny in a bad movie kind of way. Brendan Fraser: not just Encino Man anymore.

Quote –
Evelyn – You were actually at Hamunaptra?
Rick – Yeah, I was there.
Evelyn – You swear?
Rick – Every damn day.

10. They Live – Rowdy Roddy Piper finds special sunglasses that allow him to see which people are aliens as well as the subliminal messages they have put all around us. What more can I say?

Quote
Nada – I’m giving you a choice: either put on these glasses or start eatin’ that trash can.

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About

Black Marks on Wood Pulp has been commenting on life and everything associated with it since February 2005. He's also photoblogging at Much More Sure. Everything you've ever wanted to know about Black Marks on Wood Pulp and Corey Vilhauer is located here, on the About Page.

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@austinkleon Also, dude - all of The State is on Netflix instant now. And I second @halvorson's suggestion of the Nat. Park series. Sublime.

Posts

• What I’ve Been Reading – The Red Pony
• On the first day of preschool
• Mastering the cycle of inspiration
• Puddle jumping
• D*** it
• The doctor’s office
• Everything is dead
• What I’ve Been Reading – HTML5 for Web Designers
• A quick note on children’s brands
• There is no greater sports star than the sports star I become … in my head.

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