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["Kristen Sollee" <stayfreemagazine AT gmail.com>]

STAY F--- PRESENTS: ADULT EDUCATION

We are pleased to announce the launch of Adult Education, a monthly series we're doing at Union Hall in Brooklyn, NY. Each program will feature 4 or 5 speakers presenting brief lectures using some sort of visual aid (kind of like "show and tell" for grown-ups). Stay Free!'s own Charles Star will host. Hope you can make it!

Tues., January 22, 2008
Tonight's theme: Micro-genre
Union Hall (Union & 5th St. in Park Slope, Brooklyn), 8 pm

- Liz Clayton: The Architecture of Converted Fast-Food Restaurants
- Paul Lukas: On Elevator World, Hay & Forage Grower, and other trade magazines
- Heidi Cody: First National Icons: Native Americans in Grocery Brands
- Jim Hanas: On meta-tourism: photos of tourists taking photos
- Russell Scholl: On TV Commercials for Personal Hygiene Products

For more info:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=6302279332
http://www.myspace.com/adult_education



ADVERTISING'S SCARY NEW WEAPON: SONIC BEAMS

Just when you thought you've see it all, along comes a terrifying new form of advertising. An A&E billboard in Manhattan is using ultrasound waves to beam audio to hyper-targeted areas along the sidewalk below. If you've seen "The Men Who Stared at Goats"[LINK], then you'll recognize this as military technology that uses "your skull as a speaker." In other words, it beams hypersonic sounds to scare victims, make them nauseous, or cause them to faint. Yes, exactly the sort of thing we want on our streets!
[ Continued at . . . ] 
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2007/12/sound-ads-audio.html



ADVERTISING BETWEEN ADS

According to the LA Times, the writers strike may really be taking its toll: "Firebrand, a media company based in New York, launched the all-commercials-all-the-time show . . . late Monday with hopes of getting young people to view advertising: as entertainment, not an annoyance."
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2007/12/advertising-as.html



BRAIN TESTING VOTERS

The Wall Street Journal had a story on Friday about presidential candidates using "neuroscience" to test voters reactions to certain issues and messages. Market researchers have been doing this for several decades, of course; it's only recently that campaigns have had enough money to spend spare tens of thousands on brain scans. I probably would be more upset about this practice if I thought it worked. As it stands now, the whole thing smacks of snake oil. But its worth pausing to consider what's going on here, aside from the colossal waste of money: these presidential candidates are essentially trying to read voters minds...
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2007/12/brain-scan-vote.html


MY NEW FAVORITE THING: CATALOG-BUSTING

We live in a two-family building and get piles of catalogs addressed to people I've never heard of. But this website, Catalog Choice, makes getting off catalog mailing lists easy, even when the catalogs aren't addressed to you personally...
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2007/11/catalog-mail.html


BUY BUY BABY (THE BOOK, NOT THE STORE)

Just finished Susan Gregory Thomas's book Buy Buy Baby and thought Id take the opportunity to recommend it highly. Though I like to think of myself as well-read when it comes to kids and consumer culture, I found the book illuminating and engaging, with a journalists sense of balance... 
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2007/11/baby-tv-marketi.html


THE MILITARY'S SECRET WEAPON: MAGIC

Psyops military Writer Jon Ronson, previously known to me for his segments on This American Life, has made a documentary series based on his book The Men Who Stare at Goats for the BBC called Crazy Rulers of the World. This story of the devotion of 
U.S. military resources to psychics, mentalists and other bullshittery is hilarious when it isn't downright terrifying.
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2007/11/military-intell.html
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