To Market To Market Video - 1940s Billboard Advertising in Chicago

I recently stumbled upon this amazing video of Chicago.  It's part of the Prelinger Archives, a collection of advertising, educational, industrial, and amateur video from 1927 and 1987, freely available to the public via the The Internet Archive web site.  The video, called "To Market, To Market", is from 1942 and details the "science" behind billboard advertising in the city.  It contains some great shots of Lake Shore Drive, in addition to the L and the long lost Chicago street cars.  This is the city of Chicago that my grandparents would have occupied as young adults, riding the street cars and visiting the shops depicted.  That's pretty cool.

Plus, the voice over narration is hilarious.  I especially love, at 3:38, how the narrator refers to the science of advertising placement as an "immutable law".  Enjoy:



A few things to note about the video:

1) The elevated platform depicted at 1:35 is the current day Wilson stop on the Red Line.
2) The Paradise Theater, shown at 2:08, was torn down in 1956.
3) Street Cars in Chicago stopped running in 1958.

Japan Tsumani - do disaster photos bring us together or desensitize us?

Like most of the world, I've been saddened and riveted by the images and video coming out of Japan in the wake of the Earthquake and Tsunami last week.  Here's one in particular that I found compelling and wanted to share, showing a town in Northern Japan being washed away by the incoming Tsunami:



Obviously, my heart goes out to the people who have lost loved ones and been displaced by these events. 

It's made me think about the world in 2011.  Much more so than 5 or 10 years ago, virtually everyone now has some sort of photo or video capture device.  Even inexpensive cell phones can now capture video, often in HD, and this will only increase as time goes on.  Further, we've put surveillance cameras up all over our cities and in our buildings-- to a fault, in my opinion-- but the point is, it's now virtually impossible for anything of significance to happen without it being captured and filmed, either by the media, individuals, or a static camera sitting on a wall.

Here's what I'm wondering: does this serve to bring the world together at times like these, or do endless images of disaster desensitize us?  I don't have an answer, but I suspect it's a little of both.  In other words, while first hand accounts and video help to personalize a tragedy, the total volume of content available can eventually numb us to what's going on.  Like anything else, once you've seen too much of something, you start to zone it out. 

Update 4/15: The Huffington Post has a fantastic and harrowing set of photos on its home page today.  Of course, since it's the Huffington Post, I can't find a direct link or figure out who they're credited to.  I'm assuming the AP.  Here's one that I thought really captured the aftermath:

ice crusher (plus video!)

The ice was doing weird things last Friday along the lakefront.  It had broken up into pieces which resembled panes of glass and was being steadily pushed into the shore and crushed.  This is off the Montrose Ave pier.  I didn't think a photo would do this justice so I made an attempt to record some video as well (if for no other reason than to capture the sound this was making):



Photo Details: Nikon D7000 with 16-85mm lens, 1/400sec at f8, ISO400.

Video Details: I have no idea.  This was the first time I attempted to use the video function on my D7000.  There's a red button on the back.  I pushed it.