A Present. For You!

Nokia disposes of your annoying digital clutter in a highly satisfying manner. Like shooting that life-sucking powerpoint through a ring of fire.

Upload docs and destroy, here.

(if you're wary of uploading, sacrificial docs are available on website)
Just delightful.

Happy Nothing

Bah, humbug.

I just want to get this off my chest. A little rant about the holiday that dare not speak its name.

I'm amazed at how uncomfortable people are, saying anything other than "Happy Holidays." Perhaps it's only in California. It's not just the check-out cashiers and the public transit operators. Everyone at work has been correcting themselves.
"Merry Christma - I mean..."
"Happy Hanukkah, oh whoops."

Except for my closest friends, everyone I know - or run into on the street - seems to be self-editing this one greeting. It's the PC thing to say, presumably because it's intended to be non-offensive.

But you know what? I think I'm offended by Happy Holidays.

I think it represents everything that's wrong with American pop culture: the generic-ization of everything (I know, not a word, but the meaning's clear). Why do we stumble so over a simple wish of good cheer?

My international friends say it's like the wal-mart of holiday greetings. Bland, timid, trying to please everyone, but completely lacking in real information and personality. "hey, have a happy whatever-you-happen-to-celebrate, I'm so worried about offending your sensibilities." And if that's what we're communicating, that's ridiculous. And empty.

In a country where we have the freedom to celebrate whatever we wish, we should be wishing each other exactly what we mean. I want people to wish me a Happy Hanukkah. A Happy Kwaanza. A Happy Epiphany. A Merry Solstice. Dare I say it, a Merry Christmas.

Whatever season you celebrate, I want to hear it.
I want to hear who you really are.

Otherwise, this seasonal silliness is analogous to the racial fallacy of being colorblind. We should be celebrating the things that make us unique, not trying to erase them.
Lest we run the risk of losing the meaning entirely.

Frak you, Earth.

It would seem that the big conversation about the environment has recently spawned an amusing tangent.
Of hilarious.

Exhibit A.
Warning: F-bombs droppin' like it's hot.


Exhibit B.
Warning: same.
cute animals + swearing FTW

ahhh. Makes me feel like I'm back in (gr)ad school.

Speech Clouds.

From election night, the 150 most-used words in Obama's acceptance speech.



And never to be forgotten, the most important and moving speech from McCain's run for president: his concession.



Tag clouds by Wordle.

Delightfully wicked.

My friends are so talented.
One of them made this:

PalinAsPresident.com <--Click! there's multiple scenarios!

(Know Forrest too? Buy him a drink, send him a love note.)

Pinch Me.

If you ever got to see this spring's MOMA exhibit in NYC, Design and the Elastic Mind, then you saw the work of one of my favorite interactive artists, Jonathan Harris. And I'm jealous.



Hearts!

Cut Scene

Pacific Coast. Sitting in the office late with a lady named Tor. Wrapping up a major presentation for tomorrow.

Happened upon a very wise message from a good friend.

"I thank my parents for somehow raising me to have confidence that is disproportionate with my looks and abilities. Well done. That is what all parents should do."

Right on.

It's gotten me this far.

Thanks Joyce!

Venn Diagrams are cool.

Especially when they can tell you Why We Drink.

It's Back, Baby!

Proving once again what goes around, comes around:
Elizabethan style revisited as out-of-the-box couture.
Fig 1:


Fig. 2:


After all, the Neck Ruff is already on its way back.
Fig 3:


Fig. 4:


...and I think I like it.
Besides, Queen Elizabeth would be proud.

Fashion lust.

Quite possibly the Best. Hat. Ever. <--Click it, it's got a © so I don't think I can copy it.

Need a hint?

Procrastination

For weeks, I've been collecting things to post.
Now I've got a pile to work through.

Here's a brilliantly tactile web interface for snowboarder clothing, of all things. Go play!


Also: Oldie but goodie.

Potty Mouth

I've aways found bathroom graffiti fascinating.



Why do people scrawl their thoughts in such an exclusive place, for intimate viewing only? Are they just bored?

It's the only place where striking insights share the wall with random phone numbers.


Anyways, I've started a collection.

Anger + Art = Change?

My first year at Adcenter, we were assigned a project: "Anger + Art = Change" in our Creative Thinking class. Being irked by the snowballing violations and dismissals of habeas corpus, I created this.



In the same spirit, I found a piece which reminded me of several reasons why jumping on the Beijing 2008 bandwagon might not be so hot.
Fifteen reasons, to be exact.



In a consumer culture, money speaks louder than words. I recommend boycotting tyrants.

Smile, You're on Closed Circuit MTV

In Manchester UK, Big Brother's watching, and so is everyone else. A rookie band with zero budget created a great-looking music video using the city's surveillance cameras. Well done, guys.
(The song's okay too.)


The best part is that they obtained the videos through the Freedom of Information Act. Use that surveillance state to your advantage!

Very clever use of media: playing to cameras in the street, in taxis, even on a bus. Videos capture reactions from passersby, and the use of frames warps space and time in smart ways. I guarantee this mechanism will be used to execute an ad or viral video (if it hasn't happened already).

Read the full article and band interview here.

I want one.

I officially "finish" my book (portfolio) in the next 37 days.
Meanwhile, I look forward to buying this book a few months later:



Holy cow, that's so smart it's sexy.
And kudos to the marketing smartypants who put this video online.

In other news, I'm officially back from hiatus. Greetings, world.

What Lies Underneath

Everyone see the Superbowl? Good. (Go Giants)
and... those ads. hunh.

Specifically, the Victoria's Secret ad.
A classy execution and cute, but also entirely predictable. Will men really rush out to buy women's lingerie because of this ad? Will they even remember? Or will they just squeeze their wife/girlfriend's knee in between bites of spicy bbq buffalo wings?

I enjoyed Gregg Easterbrook's take in his article, Super Bowl Ads: $90,000 Per Second, who begs for energetic, athletic VS girls - suggesting (among other things) that Adriana Lima go drink a milkshake. She definitely lost some serious weight recently, which is unfortunate. She's been my favorite VS girl for a long time specifically because she used to sport a few real curves. But not any more. Check out her new cheek hollows and rib bones:

Whatever happened to Heidi Klum bringing the playfulness back to lingerie? That spoke to me a lot more than the Superbowl spot. Who're we selling underpants to, anyway?

Frankly, Victoria's Secret could use a little updating, and I'm not talking about the teeny-bopper "Pink" line extension. I'm talking about the wonderful interface at KnickerPicker.com, still in beta but already at the top of my shopping list. After all, I'm never gonna look like Adriana in underwear, so why should I buy based on her body type? I'm gonna look more like these fine gals. Different models make the dressing-room interface relatable to a decent spectrum of body types.

Tell it, Captain.

This morning, Patrick Stewart surprised me.
He echoed what's been rattling around in my head lately.

Musing on the two halves of his Shakespearean career, Mr. Stewart said that acting feels different to him now. He kept himself in check in the early years, he explained, acting with deliberation rather than passion, faking rather than feeling.

“I had a certain fear of exposing myself too much in my work for a long time,” he said. “A lot of what performing to me had been was elaborate, and at times quite clever, concealment. Someone once said of acting that it is ‘telling beautiful lies,’ and well, it became just no longer satisfactory to work that way.”

More than anything, he has Shakespeare on the brain. “I have this theory that these roles, the really great roles — there are elements of them in all of us. And that is part of the greatness of this dramatist, that he taps into something which is entirely human. You feel him reaching out his hand and saying to you as an actor, ‘Come on, it’s easier than you think.’ ”

Read the whole NY Times article. It's fantastic.

Special thanks to Beth for finding this.

Only Yesterday

New resource for all you art directors and history-philes out there:
the Library of Congress now has a blog.

And a FLICKR ALBUM.
No Photoshopping. These are the real deal.
Hi-res, full-color photographs.
Taken in the 1940's.
Preserved in impeccable condition.





The RPG forums have already leapt on this as a character and location resource. Historical fiction novelists can't be far behind.

WANT.

bumper sticker:



And a close runner up:




Nerdy, perhaps. But c'mon, SO COOL.

Too much fresh air?

The semester has begun, and we're already running full tilt. I'm working on campaigns for tap water, leaf blowers, breast cancer in the UK, and the Dictionary of American Slang. And that's just this week. But it beats the holiday slump of having nothing to work on except a promotion for our school's new name.

And our new building is more than exciting. It's HUGE.
My department used to be crammed in a cozy space that smelled persistently of chinese take-out and ancient carpet funk. Now we're lost in a massive sparkly structure filled with sunlight, brick and glass, steel and concrete, day-glo colors and, thank god, fresh-smelling air.

But that air comes at a price.

The student area's ventilation system is incredibly loud. One must raise their voice considerably to be heard over the massive whooshing air ducts, making meetings awkward and close-huddled. Plus the student body is scattered across a sprawling new space, so we have to work a lot harder to connect with everyone, including the faculty who have an entire separate floor to themselves. No one's really sure where to hang out, get drinks, or go for food yet. But there's really no reason to leave this gorgeous huge building, ever, especially when incessant hordes of undergrads swarm just beyond the front steps.

Nevertheless, I adore our new home. I'm sure everyone will acclimate soon.

Speaking of climate, I've updated Flickr thru early September 2007, when a tornado almost struck my apartment. Heart-pounding excitement, that.

There's the rotating part!