Op/Ed

Taylor Green

A&E Editor

 

On November 3rd, I walked into my job — Five Below at 7th and Market — to be greeted by miniature Christmas trees, different wreaths, colorful ornaments, and other various holiday embellishments. My cheerful expression immediately turned into a frown.

 

Usually, I’m excited about the Holiday season. This is because I’ve always been a shopper.

 

But now that I have a job in retail, my perspective has changed.I’m on the receiving end of people  going crazy about the holidays, even though December is a month away.

 

My favorite thing is when a customer will come in the store, shocked that we already have our Christmas decorations in stock.

 

“You guys already have Christmas stuff out?” They always say in disbelief — right before they buy wrapping paper, Christmas lights, and tree toppers.

 

Our store even had a mandatory holiday meeting this month. The managers explained that we’re going to have to be more alert because this is the season for scammers. We were instructed to never put bags on the counter if the person hasn’t paid yet, because they could run off with their stuff as the transaction is going through.

 

My managers also explained the “scan and bag” method, which is when you immediately bag an item after you scan it so that you don’t scan it twice. That way a customer won’t get upset with you and you don’t have to go back and correct the item that you accidentally scammed.

 

An upside of the holiday season is that more business are hiring seasonal workers. That’s good for teenagers searching for their first job or people looking to make a little more cash during the Winter. My job recently hired six new people, which makes the workload a lot more manageable.

 

Luckily, I didn’t have to work on Black Friday. However, the Saturday afterwards was a madhouse. The store was an utter mess. No one could find time to clean due to an influx of people.

 

Customers came into the store looking for crazy items, some of which we didn’t sell. This caused them to get angry and irritated.

 

For instance, a customer came in looking for a JoJo Siwa gift set for her daughter. We had JoJo Siwa bows, tutus, lip gloss, journals, and other toys but not a gift set. The customer insisted that we used to sell it, but my manager assured her that we never had that.

 

A big pet peeve that I have is when a customer sees something in a sales paper and is upset that we don’t have it in person. It’s as if they don’t understand the concept of “while supplies last”.

 

However, there are some good customers who are generous and don’t get upset with you and understand that you’re just doing your job.

 

There was one situation where a customer almost called corporate because their card declined and the transaction didn’t go through. They swore that our pin-pad system had stolen their money. Another customer who was waiting in line defended the cashier until one of our managers diffused the situation.

 

A good thing about the holiday season are the extended hours. Our store would normally close at 8, but now we’re open until 10 which has really benefited my paycheck.

 

Most people clear out of the store by 8 because they aren’t aware of the fact that we stay open late, so we have more time to clean and finish whatever we need to get done.

 

Overall, the holiday season has been pretty stressful but it isn’t anything that I can’t handle. I have co-workers who are very experienced so if I ever need help, I can just ask them for backup. As for right now, I’m not going to let some of the negative aspects of retail warp my feelings about the holidays. Outside of work, I have my friends and family who will always rekindle my Christmas spirit.

Source: Marketing Land

Avi Cantor

Staff Writer

The video begins with a slow piano lead and an oddly placed dancing-bear mascot on a table in the midst of several people who were seemingly asleep.                                           

The camera pans to reveal a trail of blood leading to a white bathtub, along with the head of the mascot and angel wings. This path leads to the artist’s head resting on the tub’s rim as his eyes stare lethargically upwards.

These are the opening shots of the moody R&B track “Will He” by George Miller, better known by the stage name ‘Joji’.

I interpreted this scene in a couple different ways.

The panda costume, accompanied by the eerie piano, represented his unorthodox approach to shock comedy from his past career and how that approach clashed with the typical comedic model.

Miller’s notoriety began a decade ago with the introduction of Filthy Frank and Pink Guy into the Youtube sphere. Both characters are abrasive, racist, disgusting, random, and outrageous. However, Miller’s content raked in millions of viewers within just two years.

The channel continued to gain traction and by the end of 2017, Miller had created another channel called ‘TVFilthyFrank’ that amassed over 6.5 million subscribers and had 10 videos above 15 million views. Miller also pioneering of the global dance trend ‘The Harlem Shake’, a Pink Guy album, which hit No. 70 on Billboard’s Hot 200, and a book called ‘Francis of the Filth’, among other accolades. But at the peak of his success, the output of content on his channel came to a screeching halt.

Miller issued a statement, which has since been deleted, that he was discontinuing his roles as Filthy Frank and Pink Guy. He explained that mental health issues brought on by the portrayal of the characters resulted in a lack of interest in maintaining the channel.

This phase in his career is represented by the sleeping people in the dancing panda’s background. They represent disinterest in his work as the bear, who represents his characters, to continue to put out content that seemingly makes him happy.

Unlike most entertainers fed up by their line of work, Miller took an unexpected turn.

The mascot’s head laying on the ground, accompanied by the trail of blood, represents Miller’s transition from Filthy Frank and Pink Guy to Joji. These characters literally bleed out of him as he lays in the bathtub where he can clean his image of grotesque immaturity.

The following scene shows him on a street with blotches of blood on a white T-shirt. This was meant to show that he’s emerged into a new career while carrying the lessons he’s learned from his previous characters. This emergence into being exclusively Joji continued with the EP ‘In Tongues’ which peaked at No. 58 on the Billboard Hot 200 chart.

Despite its success, I thought it was a bit sparse and repetitive. With just four new songs and one interlude, the Osaka, Japan native had no reason to have five songs that lacked vocal, instrumental, and stylistic variation. However, Miller would rebound from this project with much better content.

The 88Rising signee would drop the track ‘Yeah Right’ in May of 2018 which blended his melancholy sound with introspective lyrics that spoke to the unresolvable loneliness that many humans feel.

“It’s that point of self-hatred that you don’t mind. I remember dancing with a girl and I’m thinking ‘you don’t really care. Like ‘yeah right’,” Miller explained.

The song has over 19 million views on Youtube and climbing. Miller would continue his success with some more upbeat pop music going into the summer.

The half-Australian singer was featured four times on the indie label 88 Rising’s compilation album, ‘Head in the Clouds’. Despite personally feeling very underwhelmed by the album, Joji’s hook on the song ‘Midsummer Madness’ was clean, refreshing and set the tone perfectly. The track amassed over 21 million views on Youtube and would serve as the album’s lead single.

Shortly after Midsummer Madness started to pick up traction, Miller released the track ‘CAN’T GET OVER YOU’ which balanced his trademark dreary sound and alternative pop. The track would rack up over 10 million views on Youtube. A month later, he’d release the harrowing and heartbreaking track ‘SLOW DANCING IN THE DARK’ which would rack up nearly 28 million views in less than two-and-a-half months.

All of these tracks would lead up to Joji’s debut album: BALLADS1.

The project is a modest 12 tracks, with just two tracks exceeding four minutes. This makes for a runtime that isn’t overwhelming, unlike many contemporary R&B albums.

However, my distaste for the majority of the eight new tracks on the record definitely hurt the album’s enjoyability.

The tracks ‘I’LL SEE YOU IN 40’, ‘WANTED U’ and ‘NO FUN’ blended unoriginal and flat instrumentals with crude tinges of autotune that outline the main vocals.

‘WHY AM I STILL IN LA’ featuring rapper Shlohmo and producer D33J is almost unbearable to listen to. The injection of an electric guitar within the first 30 seconds is overwhelming that I had to change the song before Shlohmo’s verse. Despite how bad these tracks were, it’s good to see Joji experimenting to find a sound and to vary from his typical sound. But not all of the tracks were bad.

Joji and rapper/singer Trippie Redd’s collaboration ‘R.I.P’ pairs Joji’s mellow and floaty vocals with Redd’s trademark auto-crooning. While the songwriting is meager, the song itself is pleasant and relaxing. However, the standout song for me was the track ‘XNXX’.

The beat’s main melody, which resembles a windchime, is punctuated by the hum of a quiet bass and loosely placed hi-hats. The instrumental works perfectly with the smooth and mellow vocals Joji brings to the track.

This album, in my opinion, serves as a step in the right direction for Joji. However, he still has a lot to work on to experiment artistically while honing his sound. I have high hopes for Joji’s musical endeavors and believe that he is capable of creating some great music.