Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Hall and Oates's "Out of Touch"

contains one of the most satisfying choruses ever recorded in popular music. Listen to it now and tell me I'm wrong. I remember being blown away as a 10-year-old when it came on the radio during rides home from soccer practice. It's up there with "Back in Black," "Betty Davis Eyes," Don't Stop Believing," Dolly Parton's "9-to-5", The Scorpions' "Blackout," and all of Synchronicity in terms of its visceral impact on the tween psyche.

When I was listening to it on youtube the other day I noticed something interesting: there were tons of comments from a new generation of tweens who had discovered the song from from the video game Vice City; that's a shrewd move by the record execs--go to where the kids are and churn up some back catalog when no one's buying new shit.

note: photo is a view out my window one morning.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Using new deodorant scents now

I've decided to start using one of the following three scents from the Degree line of deodorants: Clean, Cool Comfort, or Cool Rush. This time I tried Cool Rush. I just felt it was time to be more conservative. I have a baby now, you know? Different priorities. No time for flash and brash. Next time I'll try Cool Comfort which is even more cautious. Before I would always opt for one of these more aggressive scents: Extreme Blast, Sport and Power. It was a calculated choice--I felt I wanted to advertise my athletic prowess to women--these scents were more in line with my mating habits. Now that I'm off the market (sorry ladies!), I want to start smelling like an old man.

What do you guys think of my graphic? I walk by UCB Bank every morning and their logo looks like a fist to me. So I thought it'd be funny to flip that shyte Adbusters-style, you feel me?

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Planet Earth Is...

about to be recycled...your only chance is to leave with us.

Context? Those were the words of Marshall Applewhite (known as Do by his followers); the leader of the Heaven's Gate cult. From Wikip: The Heaven's Gate group was against suicide but they believed they had no choice but to leave Earth as quickly as possible. After claiming that a space craft was trailing the comet Hale-Bopp, Applewhite convinced 38 followers to commit suicide so that their souls could board the supposed craft. Applewhite believed that after their deaths, a UFO would take their souls to another "level of existence above human", which Applewhite described as being both physical and spiritual. This and other UFO-related beliefs held by the group have led some observers to characterize the group as a type of UFO religion.

I was doing some research on these guys and stumbled across this image of all of them post-suicide. Remember they were all wearing identical black outfits and those Terminator Nikes with the purple shrouds covering their faces? I remember I bought a pair of those after seeing the movie in 7th grade. That'd be cool if Do's prophecy were true. I would've gone and "Just Did It" with Do also.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Fast Media...

We don't need it do we?When you read this heading and then look at the image, is the message clear? Not really huh? Need an explanation? Here goes: I read an article recently about the burgeoning "slow media" movement. These folks aren't into fast media like smart phones or mp3s or email or Kindles and they're working to preserve their analog preferences. The line from that Public Enemy song "Don't Believe the Hype" came to mind; False media, we don't need it do we? Don't believe the hype. So I was thinking if they flipped that lyric, the slow media crowd would have an effective spokesperson in the form of Flava Flave and I came up with this graphic. Yesterday I asked my co-worker (and co-bro), Kapples, what message, if any, he was getting when he looked at the image. Blank stare. Then I explained to him what I just explained to you guys and he's like, "yeah, it's hard to connect the dots and arrive at that conclusion just looking at a bunch of pictures." Still trying to eke out a favorable response I said, "c'mon, man, slow media! Don't you get it?" He said, "I'm not really familiar with that movement." Hilarious response. Even funnier in person.

Note: respect must be granted though for my repurposing of the public enemy logo (b-boy in kangol in the crosshairs); you see that? The record player is in the crosshairs now.

Additional note: just remembered that Flava Flave is featured in a Sprint commercial--so in addition to the muddled message, this campaign has a huge conflict of interest from the get-go. Guess I better call Terminator X at his ostrich farm. That was for you, Lardy.

Friday, March 05, 2010

Caspian


Hilarious photos of me I just dug up from like '91-92. One with my childhood chum Ian whom I haven't spoke to in 10 years and the other with my sister right before her junior prom. I had just gotten off work at the Emporium Men's Department which explains my weird outfit. Surprisingly, the caspian actually worked out for me pretty well. Think I should resurrect it?

Monday, March 01, 2010

Episodic

My new favorite word.

I was trying to find a font similar to the Olivetti typewriter logo:

Did I come close? Not really. Anyone know what font that is?