{"id":495,"date":"2012-03-06T10:33:21","date_gmt":"2012-03-06T15:33:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/slightest\/?p=495"},"modified":"2012-03-06T12:17:16","modified_gmt":"2012-03-06T17:17:16","slug":"we-built-this-city-on-a-robust-thesaurus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/slightest\/2012\/03\/06\/we-built-this-city-on-a-robust-thesaurus\/","title":{"rendered":"We Built This City On A Robust Thesaurus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You know how developers like to oversell projects? Sometimes they might have a video piece with a bunch of irony-free copy and pat, stock images. Yes?<\/p>\n<p>Looking back on these can be fun &#8212; they&#039;re time capsules from a different era. <a href=\"http:\/\/youtu.be\/J1is9Q2ReF0\">Here&#039;s a portion of a promotional film featuring Shea Stadium<\/a>, for example:<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/J1is9Q2ReF0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>More recent examples show the limits of what stadia and arenas can really do for a municipality. Toledo&#039;s Huntington Center merits <a href=\"http:\/\/youtu.be\/t0eVoz4Ss0o\">about 31 seconds worth of excitement<\/a>, for example:<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/t0eVoz4Ss0o\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>As time goes on, these promotional videos look fairly ridiculous. And then there&#039;s <a href=\"http:\/\/youtu.be\/dTFAzL_qOG4\">this promotional spot for the Barclays Center<\/a>, which <em>already<\/em> looks ridiculous (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.metro.us\/newyork\/local\/article\/1116288--video-ridiculous-new-ad-prepares-brooklyn-for-barclays-center\">via<\/a>):<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dTFAzL_qOG4\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>It sounds like it was written with the thesaurus on the high-treble setting. Some of the highlights:<\/p>\n<p><strong>0:06<\/strong> &#034;Brooklyn, the word itself resonates &#8212; it is a lifestyle it is an attitude.&#034; Except that &#034;Brooklyn,&#034; the word itself I mean, is a little clunky &#8212; especially when it&#039;s only two syllables, the last of which you sort of swallow at the end. &#034;Toledo,&#034; on the other hand, really does resonate: It&#039;s like when Humbert Humbert sang the mellifluousness of &#034;Lo-lee-ta&#034; . . . &#034;To-lee-do: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. To. Lee. Do.&#034; Brooklyn? Not so much . . . and like so much of the rest of this video, it sort of ruins it once you call something &#034;a lifestyle&#034; and &#034;an attitude.&#034;<\/p>\n<p><strong>0:36<\/strong> &#034;The transformation of its residential and business areas has prepared this great borough for an even greater future: It has prepared Brooklyn for the Barclays Center.&#034; I suppose you could call what happened &#034;a transformation&#034; though I imagine <a href=\"http:\/\/dddb.net\/php\/aboutratner.php\">some<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/atlanticyardsreport.blogspot.com\/\">might<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nolandgrab.org\/\">object<\/a> to the euphemism.<\/p>\n<p><strong>0:57<\/strong> &#034;. . . all to achieve a cultural and environmental synergy.&#034; Again with the thesaurus . . .<\/p>\n<p><strong>1:18<\/strong> &#034;. . . the next great Brooklyn landmark providing all those who visit the opportunity for a truly landmark experience.&#034; A &#034;landmark&#034; experience? Now this is just starting to sound like the summer intern&#039;s first draft . . .<\/p>\n<p><strong>1:46<\/strong> &#034;The Barclays Center will be more than just a venue, it will be a destination.&#034; See 0:57 and 1:18 above.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2:02<\/strong> &#034;Brooklynites will be able to stand proud behind its new landmark venue.&#034; I know this is just intern gibberish, but the symbol of Brooklynites standing proud <em>behind<\/em> something is interesting, no? Why not &#034;next&#034;? Or is this a veiled dig at the people who live behind the arena?<\/p>\n<p><strong>2:19<\/strong> The montage that begins &#034;getting to the Barclays Center couldn&#039;t be easier&#034; sort of looks like an Al Qaeda planning session. Creepy.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3:13<\/strong> &#034;A perfect mix of the now, the then and the next that you will only be able to capture at the Barclays Center.&#034; I like the rhetorical balance of &#034;now&#034; &#034;then&#034; and &#034;next&#034; &#8212; now if I could only figure out what it could possibly mean, and more importantly, understand why I will only be able to capture it at the Barclays Center . . .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You know how developers like to oversell projects? Sometimes they might have a video piece with a bunch of irony-free copy and pat, stock images. Yes? Looking back on these can be fun &#8212; they&#039;re time capsules from a different era. Here&#039;s a portion of a promotional film featuring Shea Stadium, for example: More recent [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[684,683,688,686,687,685,682,528],"class_list":["post-495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fw-link","tag-on-overstating-cases","tag-on-the-mellifluousness-of-the-word-toledo","tag-the-amazing-quality-of-the-word-brooklyn","tag-the-amazing-quality-of-the-word-landmark","tag-the-amazing-quality-of-the-word-synergy","tag-there-is-nothing-the-barclays-center-cant-do","tag-who-killed-brooklyn-we-all-did","tag-writing-skills-are-undervalued"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/slightest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/slightest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/slightest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/slightest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/slightest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/slightest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":500,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/slightest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495\/revisions\/500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/slightest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/slightest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/slightest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}