Beastie Boys have made even more acapellas available, complete with BPMs. It's an audio equivalent of what they did with Awesome: I Fuckin' Shot That!
AND...
Ableton Live presents this Jack Dangers interview and Meat Beat Manifesto remix contest kit.
[It will be a miracle if I ever leave home this weekend.]
If not at one of A Busy Workshop's painfully hip and sparsely stocked boutiques, kids will pay $100 US or more for one of the relatively simple silkscreened T-shirts you'll see Nigo creating here [via PSFK's "me-too" site of fashion links].
The issue that's bothered me over four or so years of watching Nigo, Bape and A Bathing Ape gain notoriety is, you can't tell a knock-off from an original -- primarily because the design is so easily imitated, and actually stolen from Planet Of The Apes. Nigo built his career on infringing on the film's intellectual property, in fact. He branched out to borrow heavily from Nike's Dunk (or fakes thereof), too. The cool-hunters of the world quietly ignore this fact, presumably so they don't blow major holes through their own inflated senses of "cool". That is so not-cool.
I hope the video is a lesson to us all: don't buy ridiculously priced T-shirts; make your own. That's how Nigo got rich. Otherwise, you might settle for an imposter on eBay, because you'll get the same look for a fraction of the expense. I'd rather have the cash and the look than the demented satisfaction of paying an amount that would've bought plenty of supplies to start my own shirt line. But that's me.
If Nigo wants to curb the bootlegging (which fans of Bape must support at least in principle, since Bape itself is predicated on bootlegs of Planet Of The Apes imagery), he needs more sophisticated designs. Nigo's camo patterns are mediocre; he's no Maharishi. The promo video only underscores the simplicity of much of his design, meaning it's the demand he's manufactured that's really made his brand. But that demand seems like it might be little more than a revisitation of the large-scale merchandising of the original Planet Of The Apes film series.
...and other FIRST NAMES you didn't know, from ANGUS MacGyver to FRANK Colombo. My parents always called me by my middle name, which appears to be the strategy many celebrities take, too. What's most fascinating about this list, however, is the comingling of real and fictional characters.
read more | digg story
Ad-verse's title, not mine... this is a pretty damn good rant about the ineptitude of direct marketers.
Of all the marketers who send their irrelevant "direct" pieces to me, one really needs to read that rant: Micro Center. This computer supply merchant once sent me a sales flyer that had a huge "Your Privacy Is Important To Us!" sticker referring to their great new privacy policy... Problem was, right next to it, they also printed my full name, address and home phone number.
I was instantly livid. My privacy couldn't be more flagrantly violated by a single piece of direct mail. Time for a direct response, and one the company truly deserved. I literally got on the phone and told them to "fuck off", and immediately remove me from every single list they have. I used to shop there at least once a month, but they haven't seen a penny from me since - and never will see one. Ever.
First off, I have to say that the fad of replacing "extreme" with some variation of "amp" is already old-and-busted. You can all stop using it now. Please.
Speaking of old-and-busted, let's talk about fake sites. Like the one you get to from this banner that ran Comedy Central's site this week (among other sites, I'm sure).
Click "approve" and you go to get AMPD. But click "disapprove" and you get this.
This "fake" site BS seems to come up more often than bad ideas are made into TV spots - but does it help to undermine your own message so readily? Obviously, someone wants to make the point of saying "this is not for some people" in an allegedly "young-adult" fashion. But are these sites made with genuine concern for the consumer, or are they just funny to the interactive marketers who spend their days making this stuff?
Definitely the latter. Every button on this fake site just sends you back to AMPD.com. It's a particularly hollow gesture, as it doesn't even do "fake" right. Irritating and overwhelmingly pointless. It's possible to do "fake" and remain conceptually sound, but this isn't even close. It's such a shitty experience for the user, whoever came up with this should be shot.
To AMPD and it's agency: don't pat yourselves on the back, mistakenly considering this post "earned media" -- you haven't earned anything but scorn and distaste, and this is from an "early adopter" in your target audience, as far as you know. Don't take us for idiots.
(I wonder if Coors was officially involved in any way... theirs is the only product featured in the banner ad, and I'm pretty sure it's done without permission or legal clearance. And is that cat 21?)
Waiter Rant offers this helpful how-to:
How To Order Wine Without Looking Like An Asshole. Granted, you may still look like an asshole - but it'll have nothing to do with how you ordered the wine.
[via]
To quote the classic Something Awful-ism, it's "teh funnay". It's popular, too. It's why I got weird looks from a lady on the bus for appearing to laugh at nothing. It's also why my girlfriend shot a curious / irritated look at me on the plane the other day... to her, I appeared to be laughing at the back of the seat in front of me. But that's not what it was...
It's the The Ricky Gervais Show podcast. Try not to laugh every time Gervais cackles at Karl Pilkington's inane insights.
