My Journey, My Discovery

I.

I stumble onto this video on YouTube.  You know, one of those ads that come before the video you want to watch. YouTube gives you an option to "Skip ad." Most of the time, I click that option. But for this one, I don't. I keep watching this video, and I'm taken by the dreamy closeups and fades in the film and the longing, faraway feel in the music ...

II.

I click the YouTuber who uploaded this. I have no idea who or what "7ForAllMakindJeans" is, but I'm intrigued. Below is the home page of the channel, and I'm intrigued even more by: "A film envisioned by James Franco. Inspired by the poetry of William Blake" ...

(screen shot, image credit)

III.

Last year, I discover this cool project from the New York Times: "Actors Acting." Actors have just 60 - 90 seconds to act a scene, and James Franco is one of them. He did a serviceable job in "Spiderman," but was much more captivating in "Tristan and Isolde." Still, when I see that dreamy music video, it is this acting bit with the New York Times that I remember most ...

IV.

Going back to my university years, I know William Blake was an English poet. But somehow I associate him with "Paradise Lost," which of course was by John Milton. In researching this, I find out that Blake was also a visual artist, having illustrated Dante's "Divine Comedy" and Milton's "Paradise Lost." Ah, there's the connection! But how is Franco's film project - "A Beautiful Odyssey" - inspired by Blake's poetry?

"Christ Offers to Redeem Man," by William Blake (image credit)

V.

You see, the title "A Beautiful Odyssey" also makes me think of Homer's "The Odyssey." My mind is swirling. Blake, Milton, now Homer. Franco, Tristan and Isolde, New York Times.

Yet another film comes to mind, something radically different from any of this - "The Matrix." It's this scene in particular that comes to mind - Follow the white rabbit ...

VI.

By now I've forgotten where I stumbled onto that dreamy music video. For a while, I thought it was from a friend on Google+, and I tried to remember his or her name. Although I have no idea where all of this is taking me, I follow the white rabbit, which is back to that "7 For All Mankind" channel. That dreamy music video was the "Audience Cut," and this is the "Director's Cut" by Franco ...  

VII.

 
I'm a simple, regular guy when it comes to clothing, but I love fashion. Not so much for its brand or style per se, but more for its artistic potential. Specifically, as another platform for artistic expression.

Two years ago I was in conversation with a friend from Hong Kong, who was a fashion designer. Through film, photography and poetry, I told her, I could conceive of campaigns to better showcase her fashion. In brief, it was to dramatize it, not for the sake of drama, but for the sake of making it real for the people she wanted to see wearing her fashion. Make it resonate with whatever is the 'workable, allowable ideal' of themselves. Their personal and private reality, in other words.

7 For All Mankind is a high-fashion house for denim, that has apparently served celebrities for over a decade. Because I'm a simple, regular guy, as I said, there is no reason whatsoever for me to know about their fashion. Until now, when a fortuitous odyssey of sorts has taken me ...

7 For All Mankind (image credit)

VIII.

Dr. Ron Art is just one set of projects I'm working on. As an entrepreneur, I'm also working on other business projects - especially management consulting. I'm intrigued by how companies create and evolve their ad campaigns, especially in the advent of social media.

Google is among the best at it, and what they've found out and advised advertisers is that an ad campaign that people specifically choose to watch becomes desirable content. Which is exactly what I do, when I choose not to click that "Skip ad" option. In fact, then, this film project by Franco is an ad campaign for 7 For All Mankind. It's so well-done and I'm so intrigued that I literally followed their white rabbit!  

But you see, to me, this isn't just an ad campaign.  It's music and film. It's poetry and mythology. It's fashion and art.