« July 2004 | Main | September 2004 »
two interviews with original Sebadoh member Eric Gaffney (now playing in Fields of Gaffney) from the past year or so. the first is pretty starightforward, but the other is on some French website, and the interviewer's grasp of English grammar seems a bit shaky, leading to such phrases as the one in the title of this entry and "What kind of relationship do you have with your music instruments".
it's been too long since i've flogged the NCAA for anything (stay tuned for BCS-related ranting come November), but in the past couple of days they've given me two reasons to do so. in a nutshell, my problem is that the NCAA allows colleges to take advantage of athletes who produce boatloads of revenue that they never see a dime of, all while being held hostage by ridiculous rules designed to keep them as "amateurs". meanwhile, the NBA, NFL and to a lesser degree MLB, NHL and MLS get free player development. specifically, here's what's been going on in recent days:
Case #1 - Jeremy Bloom was a wide receiver for the University of Colorado. he is also the reigning world champion is freestyle moguls and was a 2002 Olympian. he is training for the 2006 games, but in order to adequately prepare, he needs financial support, which he got by accepting endorsements. as a result, the NCAA deemed him ineligible to play football. the reason? while it would be kosher for him to accept a professional salary for his skiing, accepting endorsements from sponsors crosses some arbitrary line the NCAA has drawn. how they can legitimately claim that this has any bearing on his football career is confusing at best and malicious at worst.
Case #2 - Mike Williams was a standout wide receiver at USC last year as a sophomore. normally, sophomores aren't eligible to be drafted in the NFL due to collusionary rules that prevent teams from choosing players who are fewer than 3 years removed from high school. but former Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett challenged that rule in court and had it overturned earlier this year making him (and Williams) eligible to be drafted. Williams understandably decided that going pro was in his best interest (he was a sure 1st round pick) and signed with an agent to prepare for the draft. then a higher court overturned the previous ruling just days before the NFL draft. now Williams could not be drafted, but his relationship withan agent made him ineligible in the NCAAs eyes. so he severed ties with the agent and began taking summer classes (he was academically ineligible, which had a hand in this process), and applied for reinstatement. but of course, the NCAA just turned him down, leaving him in limbo for a year. what does the NCAA stand to gain by keeping him off the field? do they feel as though they need to punish someone who did nothing wrong (meanwhile the kid with the rap sheet as tall as he is gets his scholarship to Miami)? what a bunch of hypocrites.
going to the dentist today for my first teeth cleaning in 10 years and a few (minor) fillings to boot, i figured i was in for at least a couple of hours worth of torture. instead i was headed out the door whistling only 60 minutes after i had arrived. the cleaning was a breeze and the fillings required no anaesthetic.
the only problem that arose was in being given the choice between the classic silver fillings and the newer composite (white) fillings. straight up, the composites would be an easy choice since they blend into your teeth's natural color and require less drilling, although the procedure tends to take longer. and of course, the silver amalgam fillings contain mercury which it usually pays to avoid putting into your body. but insurance doesn't cover the whole amount of the composite fillings (thanks, Aetna!), so i would have been stuck with a tab of over $240. i could tell the dentist was disappointed that i chose the el-cheapo route, but too bad. he'll have to get some other sucker to subsidize his new boat.
Arcata, California is a small town along the northern coast. as such it's home to its share of burn-outs and transients and a lot of just general weirdness, all captured nicely in the Arcata Eye's local police log. it's creatively written and almost always a fun read. to wit:
Friday, July 30 10:10 a.m. A bicyclist reported an unproductive encounter with a bus at the bus station a couple of hours previous. Transportation officials checked the security video and said it appeared the biker was "playing chicken" with the bus when he sustained rear tire damage.
2:35 p.m.
A bongo downtown was in blossom
With sound someone found less than awesome
But cops thought it mild
And left the flower child
Having found no good reason to cross ’em.
3:15 p.m.
Again on the square bongos sizzled
Like bippety-boppity drizzle
Cops found the offender
And silenced his splendor
With that, the percussion-fest fizzled.
3:41 p.m. A man at the front counter wanted to report that someone named Mark was "crossing his path."
8:15 p.m. A woman reported her neighbor giving her and her children "dirty looks," and said he washed the kids’ chalk art off the street. For his part, he had previously reported feeling threatened by the scrawlings.
8:52 p.m. A woman reported that she was feeling "out of it."
get your tickets now for the FOUND magazine tour, coming back to NYC 9/23-9/25 for 5 shows (link via the real janelle).
now, back to the random notebook that turned up during the recent move. this time we get a song. or a poem. hard to tell:
Now I can't go without my fix
I need it each and every day
It's in the shape of many things
Like animals and ships from space
Jello
Jello
When I run out
I get dangerous
Beat the cat up
It's a big mess
Call me stupid
And outrageous
I'll throw Cool Whip
In your faces
Butterscotch
French Vanilla
Lemon Lime
Tapioca
[unintelligible]
It may sound strange
But I confess. I can't
Decide which I like best
I eat all day, and dream
all night About the Jelloman
in tights
Jello
The doctor says I can't be
Cured, I wouldn't want to anyway
I've got no teeth, Don't be
Concerned, I just eat
Jello anyway
Chorus [arrow pointing down]
The Bill Cosby
the shrewdness of apes/balgavy/listmaker baseball adventure begins soon and as such this space will be on hiatus until next week. many thanks to Batgirl and her legions for their help in re: the Twin Cities.
as long as i'm spreading the baseball virus, today's Hardball Times has an intersting article about the creation of the save statistic and the ripple effect it has had on the game.
interviews with the cast of Office Space, 5 years later. (link via the morning news)
Tom DeLay calls it "every bad stereotype about corporate America come true". i call it a clever and effective marketing strategy.
check out the lost bands of the new wave era. (link courtesy Chris M)
things of which i have no idea what to make #628: Little Elvis
and, finally, the entertaining and erudite Gregg Easterbrook and his column return to NFL.com.
it was a long weekend of moving (thank you Marc, Jim, Dan), and now there's a short week of work before a medium length vacation. but before t.s.o.a. closes up shop for a week or so, we will do, as the French might say, "juste assez pour passer". to that end, please welcome the return of the dead letter office series, brought on by the discovery of a notebook that seemingly belonged to a college acquaintance. i don't know how i came into possession of such a thing, but i did and it's full of random class notes, half-formed thoughts and other detritus such as this:
Life
Hanglide
Mary
Have kids
See Europe
Manage people
Race a car
Fly a Plane
Ten Years
See Europe
get married
Work in Radio
Hang glide
See America
Three years
graduate
get a job
work in Radio
Become Financially stable
Travel - see America
die 30 days
See America
Write something
Record something
Hang glide
hmmmm, it's been about 10 years. perhaps i should track him down and see how many of the things on his list have been accomplished.
a co-worker gave me $10 (ostensibly for lunch) for helping him to purge files off of a laptop computer that he needed to return to someone. he even went so far as to warn me that he had visited some websites that could be considered "impolite". really, there wasn't too much incriminating evidence, even in the stuff buried in the nooks and crannies of the registry and temp files. but, like virtually every computer i've come across in recent memory, there was a ton of spyware, adware and tracking cookies gumming up the works. those things are insidious and have to be responsible for about a 25% loss of computing power for the average user. i should start a consulting service devoted exclusively to eradicating these things from people's computers. the necessary software is all free (i use a combination of 4 different programs), but the time and know-how necessary have value. i think $30 an hour sounds fair.
when we woke up this morning, the kitchen was flooded due to a busted water heater and a reluctant drain in the laundry room. i will never live in a basement apartment again.
one of the biggest hidden and widely unknown evils out there today is the multi-level marketing (MLM) scam, an intricate pyramid scheme that essentially builds itself on the sale of worthless products by large teams of deluded, lowly paid salespeople for the benefit of a few "motivated" and "dedicated" people who have "succeeded" at the business. but their success comes at the expense of hundreds and thousands of peons who can not infiltrate the higher levels of the pryamid which are, by definition, limited in size. Amway is more or less an example of this type of thing that everyone is familiar with, and depsite their being the butt-end of jokes since the 1970s, they're still alive and kicking. another more recent example is Herbalife, which is ulimately responsible for many of those "work from home" and "lose 10 lbs. in 10 days" signs that you see in subway cars and on telephone poles. for an in-depth discussion of Herbalife, i highly recommend checking our the work done by Rob Cockerham of cockeyed.com. it's very long and involved, but the work he did in exposing the company and it's practices is highly worthwhile.
i bring this up because nearly everyday when i get off the subway on my way to the office, there is a morass of young men and women pulling large boxes down the stairs and into the station. they're typically dressed in shirts and ties and there are 1 or 2 people seemingly in charge who are leading them around. this has gone on for the 3 years that i've worked here though the people i see have changed constantly. given the whole demeanor of the situation, i assumed that they were likely involved in a similar type of MLM that required them to go out and sell whatever crap happened to be in those boxes. but it was only this morning that i made a note of the company stamped on the boxes - Innovage - and decided to do a little digging. as it happens, Innovage (whose website is amlost certainly intentionally vague) is tied up in someway with a company called DS-Max (Direct Selling to the Max!) which is ambiguously involved in so may different things it would take months to get it all straight. the points is that these kids ae basically being exploited by an organization that preaches about opportunity, making your own success and six figure salaries but on which most people end up losing money - only to hear themselves described as "quitters" and "lazy" by the lucky few who make it to the upper echelons - when the deck that's been stacked against them finally chews them up. but apparently there's always a few more ready to take their place.
but the truly amazing thing is the number of people who come to their defense and claim what a legitimate business it is and how much they believe in it, to the point where one post i read on a site devoted to this topic claimed that "without us there would be no Christmas" after someone posted that the quality of their products was equal to that of products sold in dollar stores (and in fact, much of the merchandise they peddle IS sold in dollar and other discount stores).
for more insight on how they operate, check out this glossary of terms which is sort of like leafing through Satan's playbook (example - Atmosphere : Happens once in the beginning of the day before the morning meeting and once at the end of the day after people come back from the field. In atmosphere people should be constantly "juiced" about the opportunity, be either practice pitching, telling a pro ds-max descendant story about how you succeeded with the marketing system, or some elses success story, be explaining the 5 and 8 to others and loud motivational music should be playing. Nothing negative about the business should be said. No new people should be allowed to be near each other or they might talk each other out of the business. An aura of excitement should pervade the room.). also check out the Rip Off Report for numerous stories of people getting sucked into this cult-like atmosphere who want to prevent others from making the same mistakes.
reading yesterday's article about Camplified was interesting for a couple reasons. first off it proved that there are no longer any safe havens where children can be guarded against the unholy hand of marketing. to wit:
The artists give live concerts, hold autograph sessions and sometimes participate in activities with the campers, all part of carefully orchestrated marketing campaigns to break through as the next Britney Spears or Backstreet Boy, or even Fefe Dobson, who was just on MTV's "Total Request Live" but only last year was headlining the Camplified show.
(bonus tidbit - one the bands featured, Huckapoo, has members named PJ Bardot, Angel Sparks and Twiggy Stardom who are apparently not pornstars.)
it also reminded me of the time about 9 years ago when Silver Spring's legendary Mitten (not associated with whatever this is) was invited to play a show at a day camp. there was no hidden agenda behind the show, no attempt to prime the markets for an upcoming album or tour, it was simply something fun to do. but not for me. no amount of convincing could get me to go along with the plan, a plan i saw as ridiculous. was it really more ridiculous than playing a church basement? a library? at a terrible suburban "Battle of the Bands"? on the Mall without a stage? to an empty room in Wildwood, NJ? probably not, but i stood my ground and the show went on without me.
this is turn set me to thinking about the possibility selling my electric guitar and amp, both of which have been in mothballs for months. i have access to an acoustic, which would be more likely to be played regularly, and the proceeds would go a long way towards upgrading the t.s.o.a. home computer which is desperately slow and precludes all but the simplest of word processing or e-mailing. but is there anything lamer than cashing in the instruments of youthful abandon and independence for a computer that will probably simply serve my fantasy sports addiction and allow me to post here (yipes) whenever i want?
New York City would firmly occupy the gray area on any black-to-white morality scale. and as such it allows for plenty of opportunities to indulge ones urges and predilections both high-minded and low-brow, noble and shameful. yet sometimes it leaves you scratching your head, unsure of what has just happened.
so it was that i found myself in the grocery store a few hours ago, putting together some items for lunch.
as i picked up the last item on the shopping list, a man approached and asked if i would be paying cash for my items. taken aback i pondered brushing him off, but instead said that yes i was while i mentally scanned through possible scams that might originate from such an encounter. he flashed an EBT (food stamp) card at me with his picture on it and said that we could help each other out: he would cover the cost of my groceries in exchange for me paying him in cash at a reduced rate. he wasn't obviously drunk or high nor obviously suffering withdrawal, but i still wasn't inclined to think that he legitimately needed the money. nonetheless, self-interest and curiosity won out, and i followed him to the register. the full tally was right about $15 and i worried for a moment that i wouldn't have exact change to cover my costs. then he whispered to me "so just give me $7". really? not even half? wow, OK. cash exchanged, we went our separate ways.
so this whole transaction was obviously a bit shady, but i'm trying to figure out who was hurt by it:
me? i got my groceries for more than 50% off. brilliant.
him? he lost out on $15 worth of food this month and only got $7 cash out of it, but he insitgated the transaction and set the price. i can only assume that he knew he wouldn't need the food that month. some unemployed friends used food stamps last summer and i remember them saying that it was difficult to spend all of the money available.
the supermarket? no, they sold $15 worth of goods and will get that much back from the government.
some government agency? not really. yes their $15 didn't end up being spent exactly on who it was intended for, but it did pay for food and i'm not exactly a Rockefeller here.
so i guess the guy was the loser, but only because he was willing to be in that there was benefit for him in giving up what he did (whether that benefit is legal/kosher/what have you is unknown). so, like the class action debate from a couple weeks ago i'm left to ponder a situation in which my actions lead to a possibly undeserved benefit, which benefit would have simply fallen to someone else if i declined and which benefit creates no additional harm to the other party. for now i'm chalking it up to "right place at the right time".
iTunes gets philosophical:
can i kick it?
what's the #?
what will you do when your suntan fades?
should a cloud replace a compass?
is it me or is it cold?
are you a hypnotist??
what in the world?
is that a rifle when it rains?
was it a lie?
did it play?
what difference does it make?
where is our reason?
which side are you on, colonel?
who shot mr. burns?
oh god, where are you now?
don't you wonder how it ends?
of course, just when i mock the world or marketing and product placement, it turns around to pay out a little bit for turning my brain to mush. yesterday turned into some weird epic day. we sent away for Daily Show tickets months ago, and finally received them a few weeks back. then they called us and said that they had landed a big VIP guest and were arranging a special screening as a result and that we should plan on having our whole afternoon open. long story short, it was Tom Cruise and the screening was of "Collateral" which opens today. things just took off from there. here's how it played out:
11:30am - arrive at AMC Empire Googolplex in Times Square. the wife and I commiserate about how much we hate this part of town while waiting for our companions. some weird guy with a garbage bag gets too close to us, while some teenager tries to innocently butt in to sell us whatever half-assed magazine he's holding 20 copies of. no sale. we learn at this point that Cruise's people have commandeered numerous tickets to the taping later, so only 60 ticket holders will get in. slightly worrisome, but we all quickly agree that leaving the movie early is entirely within reason.
11:45am - as we head into the theater, my phone rings. i've never been that guy before. and it's actually work-related. fortunately i talk the guy through the problem in about 2 minutes, giving me enough time to go the concession stand. other than the burble of conversation, the theater is quiet. no music, no "The 20", no unscrambling actor's names. it's nice.
12:10pm - with 44 oz. Coke on one side and large popcorn to share on the other, the movie starts. there are no previews, just straight into the action. i don't even remember seeing any opening credits. the movie is surprisingly (to me) palatable and despite a few wobbly maneuvers here and there, it's eminently watchable and never drags. Michael Mann's a good director.
1:40pm - the nervous watch-checking begins. no one else seems to have left yet, but we need to be ready to move at the first sign of people packing up. on the plus side, we've noticed an exit behind us that will undoubtedly be faster than queueing up with the rest of the riff-raff. to our detriment, we've lacked the foresight to sit on the aisle, meaning we're headed for the old 'scuse-and-sideways-shuffle routine to get out.
2:00pm - the wife is ready to go, but we're smack in the middle of the climax and i don't want to disturb people during it. finally, we hit a lull and take our leave of the theater. but friend/co-worker John and i have to pee badly. this proves costly when i emerge from the facilities to find a crowd forming around the elevator (i had an inkling when 3 different people opened the unlockable bathroom door within 45 seconds while i was relieving myself. once at street level we rush outside and jump in a cab.
2:20pm - we pull up in front of Daily Show HQ, we end up being among the first 10 people in line. the less said about the line-shfiting shenanigans of the woman behind us, the better.
3:10pm - we've all eaten some semblance of lunch when it is announced that there is free Burger King for everyone in line. the VIPs get first crack at it, but soon we're being herded in 10 at a time to grab some bland, soggy fries and a new Angus Burger (plain, cheese, or bacon and cheese). the burger is cold, but still mildly tasty. grilled onions really have to be done right to have credibility as a burger topping, and these just aren't. no one can eat more than half of it, since we've already eaten, and the inevitable "Super Size Me" conversation begins.
3:45pm - finally we're brought in to the main holding pen and seated according to ticket color. this is true for most studios, but the Daily Show studio is loads smaller than you might think, and the audience capacity is maybe 120. waiting on our seats are black t-shirts that proclaim in white lettering "WAAAYYYTAGOOOO!!" a small box on the back by the neck reveals that these shirts are also courtesy of BK and the Angus Steak Burger, though what the connection is to the "slogan" on the front is not readily apparent. still, more free shwag.
5:15pm - the taping is over. we've been lucky enough to see the taping of that night's full episode featuring Natalie Portman, plus another interview with Tom Cruise (which came first actually) which will air next week, plus we've seen then taping some set pieces for an election coverage special/clip show which will air soon. this includes Stephen Colbert wearing a ridiculous football jersey/sweat pants/fanny pack combo and multiple takes of one piece as Jon and Stephen crack each other up. some select highlights:
after his interview, Tom Cruise walks around shaking hands with the folks in the first couple rows and posing for pictures with them. he is shockingly life-like and girls and women are still swooning and bouncing in their seats minutes after he has left. Natalie Portman comes out next but you can tell half the audience has blown their celebrity worhsip wad already and as the interview starts to lose momentum, Jon says to her "i'm sorry, but i still have a hard-on from when Cruise was out here". we crack up and she moves to the other end of the couch. this will unfortunately be edited out before airing.
then while waiting for the taping of the set pieces, Jon takes questions. the wife (squared) asks him about the correspondents, none of whom we have seen to this point. while Jon cracks a joke or two, the aforementioned Stephen Colbert comes out of nowhere and climbs on the seating area unti lhe is right next to co-worker John and thus about 4 feet from me. in a crazed, high voice he says "you'll never see me over here" or something to that effect and cackles maniacally.
5:45pm - martinis in mid-town!
7:10pm - after a train ride downtown and 45-second rainstorm, the wife (squared) and i arrive at Castle Clinton for Beulah's purported last-ever show. somehow the karma of the day and some generous friends land us in the VIP section which is to the side of the stage, but allows for more personal space and has free fruit, cookies, cheese, etc. when i ask the security guard if it's OK to smoke in that area he asks me "what are you smoking?" there are at least 15 funny repsonses to that question. oh, and the show is brilliant.
9:30pm - another cab ride to the East Village on the way to Hi-Fi lands us at Crif Dogs, which is one of the best places in the city. Helping to make the place are RC Cola and waffle fries and the hot dogs are transcendent, especially when wrapped in bacon, though not everyone agrees on that point. create your own, or i recommend the Spicy Redneck. their action figure collection is sublime but one drawback is that their Ms. Pac Man machine is one of the "slow" version.
10:30pm - Hi-Fi has a nice vibe and a "fast" Ms. Pac Man. word makes it around the bar that there is free Red Stripe (whose "Hooray Beer" commercials i have recently found amusing) until 11pm. i have no idea who or what is sponsoring this, but at this point, it's just the whipped cream on the sundae. Hooray Beer!
12:15am - the cab ride home is, sadly, not free.
in what may be quickly becoming the best 2-day period of married life by which all non-birth events shall be judged, the wife (squared) and i are moving out of the urban sticks and into urban suburbia (details on yesterday's cavalcade of free entertainment and merch is forthcoming). so look out South Slope because t.s.o.a. is readying an invasion of 22nd street! no more 90 minute trips to work; no more rushing out of work to make the long schlep home to walk the dog so we can do things in the evenings; no more cramped 1 bedroom, moldy, dusty, low-ceilinged, no-natural-light basement nightmare.
in a related note, any friends of the apes are asked to clear some space on the calendar next weekend for some light lifting and carrying. please check your insurance policies for coverage information.
while we're talking about things that are completely not shocking, how about the fact that most of the money going into Iraq is ending up in the pockets of US companies. from today's Washington Post:
Analysis....shows that 19 of 37 major contracts funded by Iraqi money went to U.S. companies and at least 85 percent of the total $2.26 billion was obligated to U.S. companies. The contracts that went to U.S. firms may be worth several hundred million more once the work is completed.
That analysis and several audit reports released in recent weeks shed new light on how the occupation authority handled the Iraqi money it controlled. They show that the CPA at times violated its own rules, authorizing Iraqi money when it didn't have a quorum or proper Iraqi representation at meetings, and kept such sloppy records that the paperwork for several major contracts could not be found. During the first half of the occupation, the CPA depended heavily on no-bid contracts that were questioned by auditors. And the occupation's shifting of projects that were publicly announced to be financed by U.S. money to Iraqi money prompted the Iraqi finance minister to complain that the "ad hoc" process put the CPA in danger of losing the trust of the people.
Kellogg Brown & Root Inc., a subsidiary of Halliburton, was paid $1.66 billion from the Iraqi money, primarily to cover the cost of importing fuel from Kuwait. The job was tacked on to a no-bid contract that was the subject of several investigations after allegations surfaced that a subcontractor for Houston-based KBR overcharged by as much as $61 million for the fuel.
i wonder how much of the "economic recovery" we're experiencing is directly related to war expenditures and revenues? i also wonder if maybe Bush & co. weren't secretly excited to be going in without our European Allies so there would be less comeptition for the rebuilding $$$ necessary to get Iraq back up and running. here's a little more:
The CPA's inspector general found in audits released last week that the occupation failed to establish "effective funds controls and accountability" for hundreds of millions of dollars that were held in cash. In fact, the investigative unit said, the keys to one of the safes that held the cash was "kept in the disbursing officer's unattended backpack."
It also studied 60 disbursements from assets seized from the former regime and found that no documentation existed for five of them, totaling $99.1 million in payments. Paperwork had not been properly filled out for items such as furniture, carpets and vases, meaning, the inspector general said, that the CPA was not able to ensure that the assets "would be available for the use and benefit of the Iraqi people."
while reserching the previous entry, i came across this article from a May 2001 Brandweek magazine concerning PowerAde and their attempts to wrangle more market share from Gatorade, blah blah blah. among such advo-babble as "Coca-Cola earlier this month pledged to turn up the volume for its sports drink" and the nausea-inducing fact that they had budgeted $60 million for the campaign, they interviewed a brand manager from the company. 4 months later, there's no way he would have gotten away with saying this:
"We're going to war. We will have an air attack and ground attack. If we just do a ground attack we will get annihilated from the air. We have great grass roots properties. [Gatorade's] going down."
does it shock anyone else that people get paid to care about this garbage?
if there's an eventual limit to the popularity of NASCAR (and if you ask me, they've gotta be trading paint with that limit already), it's going to be brought on by ridiculous crap like this:
LONG POND, Pennsylvania (Sports Network) - Jimmie Johnson Tuesday was fined $10,000 for covering a bottle of a sports drink made by a NASCAR sponsor due to the fact that he has a contract with a rival company.
After Johnson climbed out of his car following Sunday's race win at Pocono Raceway, he put a sign in front of the PowerAde bottle that NASCAR officials placed on top of his car.
PowerAde is an official sponsor of NASCAR and is made by Coca-Cola, but Johnson has a sponsorship with rival company Pepsi.
"It ended up being an expensive move on my part," Johnson said. "The bottom line is I'm just trying to defend my options as a driver."
Johnson, like other Pepsi or Gatorade-sponsored drivers, has been knocking the bottle off his car when he got to Victory Lane. However, two weeks ago, NASCAR president Mike Helton told drivers they could no longer do that.
Johnson tried to get around it by taking a sign that said Lowe's -- the primary sponsor of his car -- and placing it in front of the bottle. NASCAR, though, said Johnson was not "following the directive of a NASCAR official" and called the act "detrimental to stock car racing."
i don't know which is worse, the driver taking his sponsors so seriously as to actually whack a competitors product to the ground or the overseers who go so far as to place actual products on the winning cars in the first place. every race is so saturated with advertising, i don't know how they expect any of it to get through to people anyway.