This blog is so well-known in certain marketing circles that I almost feel obligated to bring up a subject which may be of interest to them. Today I will showcase talent, fresh approach and marketing savvy of creative geniuses who brought you this innovation:
♥Fine Print On Billboards♥
Lets say you are driving North on I-35 around 127th street overpass and you notice this enticing billboard. “GasoLean“, just what you always wanted, but something is not right and no amount of squinting allows you to see just how “GasoLean” this vehicle is. Is it closer to “GasoBulemic” when it actually throws up most of the gas it consumes, or is it bordering on “GasObese”?
It’s simple. All you have to do is drive up to 127th street, park your car at the nearby apartment complex, walk up on the bridge and read the fine print.
Still can’t see? You must be getting old, have a closer look. That’s all, just a quick drive and a short walk away.
Although The Circus (Tsirk) was made in 1936 it was still shown on TV in the 1970’s and 80’s and the songs took on the life of their own with “My Country is So Vast” (Shiroka Strana Moya Rodnaya) becoming the Soviet equivalent of “God Bless America”.
The movie is beautifully done propaganda piece for the Soviet Society where there is no place for racism and hatred and everyone wears white. It stars the most popular actress of that time Lyubov Orlova whose looks and voice dominated the best Soviet movies of the 30’s and 40’s.
Below are some clips I cut and lightly subtitled; some of the scenes are actually in understandable English, the others are musical numbers where no translation is needed; some scenes can be understood without words: in 1930’s actors still knew how to display emotions on their faces from their years in the silent movies.
The movie starts with an angry mob scene, someplace in the racist US of A, where a bunch of screaming people sans torches and pitchforks are chasing Marion Dixon, a mother of an interracial child who happened to be a circus performer.
On the train Marion meets Franz Von Kneishiz, who will become her manager. The story moves to the Moscow Circus where Marion performs her death-defying stunt – “Flight to the Moon”. The music playing in the beginning of the clip is a de facto anthem of the Soviet Circus. I still remember the circus being this grand and amazing.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud3DLEr1nsE
During the act the Director of the Circus asks his actor -a military hero – Martynov to recreate and improve this act. His partner is to be the Director’s daughter whose fiance also appears carrying flowers. Martynov throws the bouquet to Ms. Dixon. Love is in the air.
Evil capitalist Von Kneishiz threatens Marion Dixon to tell everyone about her black baby. While she is crying over Martynov’s photos, he comes into the room to pick up his suitcase. The scene ends with the war of stares between him and Von Kneishiz.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYdD7RlTI5g
Von Kneishiz hints that he would like the contract extended, instead the director shows him the new replacement act.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9zWQd09zCU
Stunt fails and Marion runs downstairs concerned for Martynov. Seeing her interest Von Kneishiz tries to make an announcement about her baby.
Von Kneishiz begs Marion to leave, she refuses. She says that Martynov loves her, but Von Kneishiz screams that no one will love her with her black baby. When he leaves, she sings a lullaby to her baby in Russian but with an “american” accent.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djesek2-e-Q
Notice the black maid. This movie probably employed the whole black population of Moscow. The baby was played by James Lloydovich Patterson who lived in the USSR, served in the Soviet Navy, but later emigrated back to the USA.
Von Kneishiz tries to leave Moscow with Marion, but she is being helped by her Soviet friends. Instead she partners with Martynov for a now successful “Flight to the Stratosphere”.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aBlL5TIUq8
Von Kneishiz finally gets a chance to tell everyone about the black baby. To his dismay no one cares. Instead the circus patrons, each one of a different nationality takes turns singing a lullaby in there own language. One of the singers is a world-famous Jewish actor Solomon Mikhoels who sings in Yiddish. My Dad always pointed out this scene because this was probably the only Yiddish on film which wasn’t censored. Mikhoels was assassinated on Stalin’s orders after the WWII but in this movie he illustrates the supposed internationalism of the Soviet people.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31kSvUrBd6I
The Circus director tells Marion that the Soviet people love all children – white, black, green, pink with stripes. Marion starts singing “My Country is So Vast”. The scene moves to the Red Square where the Circus performers lead the demonstration singing, marching and carrying portraits of the Soviet leaders.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1ioY7tD5_E
This movie was immensely popular throughout the Soviet times. As any propaganda movie it wasn’t very truthful, there was a lot of national hatred, antisemitism and conflicts in the USSR; many of them manifested themselves only after the break-up of the Soviet Union, but it didn’t mean that on a personal level many different nationalities didn’t live happily side-by-side. People of different nationalities shared apartments, served in the military, worked in the camps. In these situation nationality took second seat to the necessities of hard life.
I am not a movie critic (but I once had a beer with a real-life professor of cinematography), so I will not comment on the technical aspects or the influences present in this movie. The characters and the musical numbers from this movie are an important part of the Golden Fund of the Soviet culture and you just had a chance to enjoy a small peek at it.
I always wanted to see the beautiful Pacific Coastline, a frequent feature on travel shows and computer screensavers. My original plan was to drive a part of Highway 1, but one day I had an idea to see an even larger part of the Coast from a rail car window – a much more relaxing and hassle-free way of travel. Since writing about traveling by train in 2008, I’ve become an even bigger fan of Amtrak, riding the rails to Chicago at least once every year. It’s a stark contrast with the air travel, where if it were any closer to the cattle transport they would have to give passengers antibiotics and tag their ears. I didn’t have to think twice about buying tickets on the Coast Starlight – one of the most picturesque routes in the country. In addition to the usual advantages of Amtrak – refundable tickets, no charge for luggage, comfort and humane treatment – this time I paid for a roomette in a sleeping car and automatically became a first class passenger. I knew it right away when an attendant brought a small bottle of (cheap) champagne as soon as the train left Seattle. The price of a sleeping car also includes all meals, coffee, juices and fruit in the car, access to a private lounge car and (on this train) a free WiFi. The roomette is not as roomy as one might think, but it’s comfortable enough and private, so no one is schlepping past you at night and the light is not on. The ride is pleasant, the food is not bad at all (did I mention it’s paid for?), the stops are infrequent and the views are breathtaking. I thought it was worth the money, even though it was not cheap.
These are some photos I took from the train, some of them are blurry, so you will feel like you are on the train…or drunk.
I finally found the old KC Star article I was referring to:
The Art of bread Old World artisan loaves are growing in popularity, picking up where Wonder Bread left off
The Kansas City Star – April 14, 1999
Author: MARY SANCHEZ, The Kansas City Star
Everything about Manuel de la Rosa speaks of Old World ways. When he travels his tools are hand carried in a worn leather satchel, its seams repaired with metal coiled as thread.
The main ingredient for his craft, wedge-shaped red bricks , are imported from Barcelona, Spain. That is also where de la Rosa lives.
He is one of five people in the world trained to lay the bricks of a special hearth oven for bread baking – the type that has been used in Europe for generations.
In February, de la Rosa brought his art to a surprising place – a new HenHouse store being built in Overland Park at 123rd and Metcalf due to open in late May. For a week, he worked 12-hour days to build the wood-stoked oven .
Several years ago de la Rosa constructed an oven at Wheatfield’s, a specialty bakery in Lawrence. That such an oven would be constructed in a supermarket is indicative of the impact Old World breads are making in mainstream America.
“The fact that they are putting in this oven is really pretty bold,” says Thom Leonard, production manager with Farm to Market Bread Co. “But I think the time has come. People want really good bread and they want it fresh. And here they will be able to get bread that is being removed from a wood-fired brick oven .”
Farm to Market brought de la Rosa to Overland Park to construct the oven . The breads baked in it will be sold under the Farm to Market label, just one local example of what is commonly known as artisan breads.
The public’s desire for the breads is growing here and nationally, yet many say marketing them also must include a liberal dose of education. After all, most Americans were raised on Wonder Bread.
Many of the true artisan loaves have a unique appearance – they sometimes are allowed to rise in baskets so the weave imprint forms on the dough, and their crusts are hard and rough, often dotted with cheeses and herbs. Most are hand-shaped into loaves much more rustic and irregular than the uniform slices found wrapped in plastic on most store shelves.
The artisan breads do not keep well because they are made without preservatives. In Europe people buy their bread fresh that day, for consumption that night. Americans tend to buy for a week at a time.
One local baker talks of “transition breads,” loaves that are a softer, less exotic variety and perhaps more palatable for someone used to grabbing a few slices out of a plastic bag.
“Whenever someone comes in and buys several loaves, I always ask, ‘What are you going to do with all of that bread? ‘ ” says Larry Schanzer, co-owner of Napoleon Bakery & Cafe in Westport.
Schanzer tells of one customer who called distraught because she didn’t know what was wrong with her loaf of bread. She had placed it atop the refrigerator for five days and now it was as hard as a rock.
“I had to tell her, ‘Dear, you can’t keep our bread,’ ” he says. “Our bread is best consumed on the date purchased.”
Although it might be blasphemy to a European baker, many of the stores include a plastic bag with the loaves they sell; in case there is unused bread that must be frozen, most recommend doing so after two days.
But some bakers warn you can deviate only so far from the origins without spoiling what makes artisan breads unique in the first place.
“People need to understand that it is an art and a science to understand the dough and the long process to make these breads,” says Sara Welter, general manager of the Breadmaker Bakery Cafe in Fairway, which sells to the public and also supplies many area restaurants.
“Some days the cuts in the loaves are made just perfect and the bread is just beautiful,” Welter says. “It is really an art.”
Americans knead it So what is an artisan bread?
One local baker says that if you can squish a slice, crust and all, and roll it into a golf ball, it isn’t artisan.
Generally, artisan bread is handmade, not mass-produced by heavy machinery. Most have crusty tops, which come about in part because of how they are baked, without pans, usually in a hearth oven as opposed to a convection oven .
But even the Bakers Guild of America admits defining artisan can be difficult.
“The word artisan certainly does not apply exclusively to any one style of bread product, or to any one method of baking,” the Guild’s Web site says. “Rather, it has more to do with the individual baker.”
Ultimately, the guild settles on this definition: “…it is the work of a knowledgeable, skilled and conscientious baker who is attempting to make the best possible product.”
Which, the guild notes, leaves the definition up to the individual baker.
If time and loving care are the determinants, Tony Arni, lead baker at Dean & DeLuca, qualifies.
Arni and executive baker Pat Whitaker are the only two people at the Overland Park store who are allowed to handle the dough during some parts of the baking process. This is to ensure a consistent quality in the store’s dough.
The process is as scientific as it is artistic. Even the temperature of the flour can have a huge impact on the outcome of the bread.
Yet Arni speaks of the dough in familial terms.
He talks of the “mothers,” starter doughs kept in buckets. The starters contain natural bacteria that make it bubble and ferment.
The buckets are “fed” three times a day, adding more water and flour to keep the mixture active. “Babies” are pulled off, usually in 3-pound chunks to be shaped into loaves.
It is a long process. Some of the doughs must rest for up to five hours before being shaped and baked, Arni says. That means he, Whitaker and the other bakers often arrive at the store by 3 a.m. Baking at Dean & DeLuca, like most area bakeries, occurs in a stone hearth. The stones are 8-foot long, nearly tomblike slabs, Arni says. He uses a dusting of cornmeal for cushion between the bread and the hearth stone. Steam is injected into the four-deck oven , which helps form the hard crusts typical
A unique feature of the new Hen House oven is that it doesn’t depend on steam injection for its moisture. In de la Rosa’s oven , the steam comes primarily from the breads that are in the oven , says Farm to Market’s Leonard.
“The bread can expand more fully, so the complex crust flavors are deeper and the crust will set quickly,” Leonard says.
A light bulb is the oven ‘s only electrical part. The wood that fuels the oven is stoked through a metal grate. The entire oven weighs about 4 tons.
Instead of several decks of stone, de la Rosa’s oven has one giant hearth stone. It can be turned with one finger using a silver steering wheel outside the oven , similar to what you might find on a car. A door allows bakers to remove and place loaves as they finish.
The oven can hold up to 100 loaves at once. And each loaf will get individual care, Leonard says.
He is training the bakers in how to handle the dough. “There are things about dough that you can only tell by touching it,” he says.
“If it is too soft, sticky, warm.
“Handling dough is still a very human thing. A baker might even decide to wait a half an hour before shaping dough. A machine doesn’t have that capability.”
De la Rosa has returned to Spain now and is planning his retirement. After building the ovens for 42 years, he sees the business changing. There is more competition from other companies, many making more modern electric and gas ovens . De la Rosa insists his wood-burning type is supreme.
At one time the world had 20 master masons such as himself, specializing in building the ovens for the J. Llopis Co. of Barcelona. After he retires, there will be four.
“I’ve helped a lot of people make a lot of good bread,” he says. “But there is more competition now. Some of the new hearth ovens don’t need bricks .”
‘The Starbucks of bread’ That Europe is turning toward more American methods of mass production is an irony many bakers note. Especially now that the Old World ways of baking bread are gaining popularity here.
America won a few more bragging rights for its bread in February when a three-man United States team won the 1999 Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie, the World Cup of Baking.
France took second in the Paris competition.
“That the American team could win the gold medal, that is an indication of where bread is going in this country,” Leonard says.
Another measure is the way America is selling artisan breads, trying many avenues to introduce it to new customers. Farm to Market sells its products in about 30 area groceries. In Europe, the lone bakery, not a giant grocery, is still the standard.
An American spin to the trend of artisan breads is franchising.
Breadsmith opened in November 1997. The Brookside store is part of a franchise that began in Milwaukee in 1993. There are now 55 Breadsmith stores.
“Our goal would be to be the Starbucks of bread,” says founder Dan Sterling.
Chris Akers, co-owner of the local Breadsmith, didn’t come from a culinary background. He spent three weeks training in Milwaukee first. Then, a company trainer came to Kansas City for 10 days when the store first opened.
“It’s not rocket science,” Sterling says. “We have really simplified the techniques.”
A former architect, Akers found the art of bread baking appealing. “Like architecture, there is a sense of craft with bread baking,” he says.
Napoleon, perhaps the Kansas City area’s grandfather store in artisan baking, welcomes the competition. “Anytime anybody opens up a competitive market, it brings the awareness of that product up,” Schanzer says.
Napoleon is in its 16th year of business, first operating at an Overland Park location and now in Westport. Schanzer says that although his wares sell well, it is hard to make a living selling bread for $1.50 to $3.50 a loaf.
And it is not an easy business to enter. Imported hearth ovens cost about $75,000.
Most bakeries depend on deli and catering business as well, even Napoleon. “We have to do lunch, and we have to have the pastries as well,” Schanzer says.
Several area bakers predict the artisan bread trend will grow for at least 10 more years. And, for now, Napoleon and the other bakers in town are welcoming the popularity of artisan bread.
“This invigorating growth and interest in the bread makes more people aware of it,” Schanzer says. “And over time that makes them eventually want more of it.”
