Double Pope Canonization, a Marketing Success!

I have liked Pope Francis for a while now, I’ve mentioned this. But among the many other things I like about him, I would add this: he has a head for marketing!  Or he is just a natural at being "likeable" or at being in the business of making over the Church into something very friendly.

What a campaign. First off, we have a new likeable Pope who commutes, ride bikes, slums with the masses, and accepts gay people. Then he decides to canonize two other popular and friendly Popes in this trifecta of Catholic Pope Sainthood Extravaganza!  

source: the salt and light tv site

Masses of Catholics flock to the Vatican. Social media pages for this are set up! (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube…. They had it all.) They are streaming the canonization online. How very modern of the Church. How very anti of an archaic image.

from cnn.com

Old devotees (via fans of 2 Popes for sainthood) – check. Youth (via social media campaign) - check.  

In addition, they held mini remote events for Catholic countries where relics of the Popes and saints were toured! (I chanced upon it at the Eastwood Mall the other day.) Talk about bringing the event closer to the people. 

How efficient and well thought of was all that? I mean, I didn’t even plan to see these relics and there it was right in front of me that I can’t not go and see it. It was after a novelty, traveling relics and all that. And, there was no entrance fee since the Church is supposed to be an open house, is it not?

 

Such good publicity, I just can’t get over it. 3 well liked Popes, celebrated in one big worldwide event, it cannot get any better than that.  Good job, Pope Francis!

Updates / Updates

MH307

For days / weeks, I was glued to the screen even when let’s face it nothing was really happening and every scrap of small lead was turned into a sensation by CNN American (obviously I am annoyed with CNN International’s US counterpart – they pander too much, they dumb it down too much and they usually have these very American unworldly reactions to things).

Yet I continued to watch the coverage even if it was all becoming like a surreal episode of Lost, a show that also started out as compelling and eventually became so dragging that you had wondered when they will ever get off the freaking island.

Incidentally, the Lost people were flying out of Australia when they got lost... and well, you know, MH307 is allegedly somewhere near Australia as well.

Are we to imagine the passengers are slumming somewhere on an island? 

Last week, authorities declared the plane to be somewhere in the Indian ocean and that everyone is dead. How and why they are there, they have not yet actually figured out. 

Then a few days after, there were some buzz about there is still hope... (Um, what is it really?!)

Obviously, what happened is not typical of a airplane malfunction or a terrorist attack and all this is certainly strange. The conspiracy theorist in me has my antenna twitching. BUT what can we really do but wait and listen what the media will feed us next?

*Update: Well, as of now, there are still no signs of the plane and the investigation as well as the media announcements have gone everywhere – like, really, everywhere  (fake passports, pilot is an activist, the other pilot lets people inside the cockpit, plane/machine error, sabotage, hijacking, low altitude flying, radar avoidance, psychological issues, lithium batteries exploding, etc. / Vietnam, Malacca, Indian Ocean, etc.). 

In the words of my friend – I feel like they are only deluding themselves and that all that they are looking at are images of trash. Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to be too far from the truth.

I know it’s all unprecedented and it's hard to comb the ocean for debris but these days I don’t even listen too intently anymore. I have lost patience with this so called investigation. It is one thing to have a couple of initial theories disproved with valid data and another thing when things keep changing from all directions, from left to right and for the authorities to keep on contradicting themselves. 

And in the words of my aunt - these experts doesn't seem like experts at all if their theories keep on going from one point to another. Well, I couldn't agree more. 

What I don't get is why the authorities keep on announcing things that they haven't really confirmed? Why do they keep announcing things then later contradict themselves? If they are not sure, then they are not sure, why even announce it as fact? Is there really some cover up here? I am not sure as to what direction I should speculate but the more things become blurry like this, the more it all sounds fishy. 

So, until a lead is truly a lead - should we still be listening?

Indian Wells (late post) 

Yes, Federer made the Indian Well finals and lost to Djokovic. However, I am not so upset about that as it was clearly a very close game that could have gone either way.

Unfortunately, I was not able to watch it on TV as the cable TV here do not prioritize games unless they are of the basketball variety.

Let me use up this moment to complain and rant: BASKETBALL is NOT the ONLY sport people in this country watch! 

In fact, while I will cheer for my college basketball team, I do not watch the PBA or the NBA. I watch a variety of other sports and I demand my market to be served! AND, I believe I am quite valid in my demand as I truly am the market - I watch a lot of TV, do I not?

Ukraine

So, where are we now? The voting has happened. Russian has now taken Crimea. EU/US has announced sanctions. Ukraine is now hostile to Russia. So now what?

Peace Process

To be honest, I am not sure how everything is  going… BUT I am hoping that it will all go well. I would just like to note that despite all the bruhahaha of MH307 at least the Malaysian PM found the time to come visit us and help us out with this.

Pork Barrel

Wait a minute, where are we now? I honestly got lost.  Lots of people talking crap... (He said / she said, You must also investigate the pro government people, the witnesses are the real criminals, yada yada yada...)  BUT wait… WHERE in the world is Sen. Bong Revilla and Sen. Jinggoy Estrada now? Why – they are out of the country… Oh, I wonder why? 

RIP Will Gardner (late post)

WHAT THE…?! It definitely threw me off. I was so shocked. I was so dumbfounded. I am still utterly devastated.

It just came out of no where. I am still shocked. 

screen cap from the show

I was just saying last (last) week that no matter how I enjoy Suits, The Good Wife is still my favorite (current) lawyer show. And, I really look forward to Monday nights when I can get my regular dose of the show – UNTIL TODAY (March 24, 2014)  – when they killed off Will… WHAT WAS THAT?!!!

I know people (or the show runners) will say that this will make the show better, that it is a brave show and such a crafty show that it can kill of a lead character in such a shocking way. I know, it has been done in other shows (and has worked for some shows) but this trick has been done over and over and over… AND, I do not care, I just don't want them to kill Will!!!

Call me a cheeseball but like Mindy (Lahiri), I also watch shows for their entertainment value ( and their cheesy love angles) as much for their intellectual value. AND, I was quite happy with the Will Gadner / Alicia Florrick love story.

AND, since they were killing him off anyway, why couldn't they have at least exhausted all the possible lovey dovey storylines they could have churned out for Will and Alicia? INSTEAD, they spent the entire season (albeit it was a good season), tearing Will and Alicia apart. I am devastated. They parted on such bad terms and only these last 2 episodes did they got back to somewhat friendly terms but barely. AND then he dies! I just cannot take it.

Alicia finds out Will is dead (screen cap from the show)

Pardon my obvious violent reaction. I am grieving.

The Good Wife, you pulled a Downton Abbey on me! AND post Matthew, I don’t believe Downton Abbey was particularly that good anymore. And while I believe The Good Wife is a great show and have faith that they will keep it good, I still can’t say, at least for me, if it will still be the same without Will. He is one of the reasons I watch the show. His relationship with Alicia is one of the major reasons why I watch the show. Why don’t they just shoot Peter Florrick?! I liked Mr. Big on Sex and the City (though on hindsight I think about it and I now wonder why) BUT I really can’t stand Peter Florrick. Even if he is technically inside the body of Mr. Big, it’s just not working for me.

I would pray, beg and hope for the showrunners to decide to bring Will back to life, like maybe fans will go crazy and start sending random items to the studio in protest (though I doubt this since the show's target market aren't really crazy tweens or comic con people)  – except they truly killed him, showed his body bloody, covered by a sheet and everything. It’s not like it was a grey area type of killing. It wasn't like he got lost at sea (that he may return) or his plane exploded (like in Revenge when Victoria apparently never got inside the plane). It's not like this is a supernatural show (like in Heroes where no body actually dies)… So, Will is very dead. And, again, I say, I am very upset.  

Update: I have now seen the episode after the shocking episode featuring Will's death. I don't know. It's still good. I get it, how something like this is a good plot device. I get it, how something like this will make a big impact on Alicia and the other characters. But... I still don't like it. I don't think my experience of watching The Good Wife will ever be the same. 

Josh Charles, why do you have to decide to pursue other things? Why?

Veronica Mars! (late post)

Yes… 10 minutes into the movie, I was all moony eyed, so excited and everything even if nothing has happened yet. Suffice to say, I loved the movie. What Veronica Mars fan wouldn’t? The movie is not meant to play out like some summer blockbusters and it really is probably not for everyone (no super heroes, no end of the world scenes, no robots, or tween vampires) but for all the Veronica Mars fans out there, it felt like coming home and it felt like reminiscing high school but with only the good memories.

Hello Veronica! (screen cap from the movie)

Fan service, it is what it is. And, I really am not complaining! LoVe forever! I will suck it all up. Make a sequel and I will wholeheartedly cheer it on Rob Thomas!

LoVe! (screen cap from the movie)

So what are my comments on the plotlines and what everyone has been doing all these years? First off, Veroncia going to Stanford and then Columbia law school, I approve. I am all for education. When Veronica was in high school her dream was to go to Stanford and I am glad she eventually got there. I never liked Hearst College anyway.  

Would I have liked her better as an FBI agent? She’d be great at it, yes, but I probably won’t like it as much. She would be all limited to the rules of law or the FBI. Plus, her going over to the respectable side for a while (as an almost lawyer) is also something that works with the story line. Logan going all navy pilot on us, I totally applaud! Who wouldn’t? He had me at navy uniform. My only comment is that I’m not sure I like the skinny Logan. But then, I will always be biased for Logan so I accept him for who he is.

Hello Logan (screen cap from the movie)

As for Piz, I don’t really care much that much about him. Sucks to be his character but, hey, I don’t particularly care. Wallace and Mac are all doing ok. Dick (aka Candy Andy of 2 broke girls) is actually looking quite good these days. He is cute in a surfer kind of way, if only we can erase his doofus persona from our memories. 

Overall I like that a lot of the show’s characters made an appearance. Weevil, our old biker friend makes an appearance (and he has a wife and kid now!). Deputy Leo (aka New Girl’s Schmidt) makes an appearance as well. Vinny was also there. And, Gia Goodman (aka the bitch from apartment 23 and Breaking Bad’s Jane) also came out as a semi major character in the film.  

On a side note: Celeste Kane, we could have gone without her. I don’t think anyone wanted to see her. Maybe they should have showed us a scene of Duncan with his kid somewhere, if they wanted someone from the Kane family to represent. Not that I actually like Duncan because I really don’t care too much about him either. 

It would have been cool though if  Leighton Meester, the original Carrie Bishop, made it to the movie. On this note, I would just like to point out that it is kind of uncharacteristic for Susan Knight, Carrie’s friend, to go on with the gang partying like that. Wasn’t she the one who ran away because she got pregnant and was disowned by her parents?

Despite my comments, I am a very satisfied customer. I am a LoVe shipper and I definitely have no complaints! And, did I mention that I am so ecstatic that the Veronica Mars franchise has been revived?! I actually regret not donating some money to the kickstarter campaign. I didn't hear about it early on and then I thought it would be complicated since I don't live in the US. I would have loved to get one of those shirts though, the one that they give you when you donate to the campaign. They're just so cute! 

V. Mars shirt (pic from the kickstarter page)

So, for a couple of days now, I’ve been listening to the Veronica Mars (TV show) soundtrack like a crazy person. What does this say about me? I am a fan girl at heart, that’s all I can say.

Update: I’ve read the new Veronica Mars book. It’s a good installment for starving fans who just want to consume more and more Veronica Mars but for those who are looking for more LoVe, well, there isn’t much sadly. I did enjoy the book, yes. But I am one of those who want to see more LoVe action (Again, I say, I am a fan girl.), so the book left me a little bit wanting.