Nate goes to the Far East

While my move to fantastic Somerville may be an exciting and brand new experience, I'd like to remind my readers who aren't familiar with my college acquaintances about one particular friend's move to Japan. Nate Averyt's journey to the Land of the Rising Sun is an amazing one. In his blog, Nate writes about and photographs the transition he made from the Western World to the East:

When last we left our hero, he had just gotten to his final destination in Higashiomi City in the Shiga prefecture. As it turns out though, Higashimoi City is a bit of a misnomer. It isn't an actual city, but a conglomerate of small neighboring cities that have decided to join together for administrative purposes. The name of my actual city is Aito, and prior to the merger was the second smallest city in the prefecture. It's very rural with a good part of the land taken up by rice fields. Lots of beautiful mountains though, covered in trees, and I'm told it looks very lovley when the leaves change. ~read more at: The Happy Smile Super Challenge Family Wish Show

Congratulations to Nate on your successful transition to Nippon life, and thanks for reading my blog.

That was a nice break, now back to business

I hate to come off as just another one of those Hummer-bashing know-nothings, but this time, it's personal. Nevermind that the Hummer is a gas-sucking behemoth that doesn't deserve an inch of road. Nevermind that the people who generally drive said Hummers aren't environmentally or socially concerned. How could they be if they continue to feed into the aging paradigm of American dependence on antiquated and harmful foreign energy sources? Let's focus on marketing. Have you seen the latest Hummer H3 commercial? You know the one I'm talking about. It starts as a giant monster is wantonly destroying a city. The monster runs into a giant robot doing the same thing, and the two of them fall in love. The robot impregnates the monster and they give birth to a little Hummer H3.

Are the folks at Hummer trying to tell us something? I hope this message doesn't go over too many peoples' heads, but the image of two monstrosities destroying an American city isn't exactly a positive one. Furthermore, the spawn of two monsters is the very image of what may one day lead to the actual destruction of America (see my previous post on American dependence on oil.) Though it may have been unintentional, this commercial illustrates what happens when the destructive forces of unenlightened greed (the monster) and reliance on outdated technology (the 50's era robot) collide. They spawn a little monster, something that, as the proud parents look on, has the potential to severely damage this country by fueling overconsumption and the gluttonous consumer culture we hold so dearly.

What sort of a lesson is this? Have we become so blinded by the "cool" factor that we are willing to overlook such a glaring slap in the face? This commercial only serves to advance the attitudes of greed, superiority, and absolute thinking that can in no way be considered progressive. I suppose as long as we keep buying into this kind of tripe, we'll never see any real progress. I can only hope to change the world, one blogger at a time.

Keep the faith, and check out Adbusters for more info on consumer culture and sustainability.