Screencap from Das Racist’s Who’s That Brown? via Village Voice
Back in the day, music video debuts on channels like Much Music or MTV were a big fucking deal. But then Youtube (and OnSmash) came along and that changed everything—but still, the music video didn’t die. In the past couple of years we’ve been exposed to some pretty creative music video marketing techniques—from making videos the memes themselves to putting out teaser trailers.
In the past week or so, three bands—with three very distinct levels of success, from mass to niche—have put out their own innovative music videos online, making heavy use of the internet/meme-chasing/hit-grabbing tactics to prove their virtual relevance.
roflcoptr.
So, here’s the New Thing! An idea so simple, so elegantly obvious and offensive and eventual yet nonetheless surprising and fresh (and awesomely alliterative): Hipster Hitler, a webcomic by JC and APK, whoever they are.
- Are New York Times book reviewers biased towards white dudes from Brooklyn? When was the last time you read a book by a female author? Do you get the hype around Jonathan Franzen? I’m crazy tired so sorry about the lazy rhetoricals. But yeah, Chris Jackson wrote something about some such and I dug it somewhat. I can’t totally relate (two of the last good books I read were by women), and I get the feeling this debate as it’s played out on the interwebs is a New York conversation, but dude makes a good point about looking at our reading patterns and asking ourselves what we’re missing out on. -jc
- In 2009 Dave Eggers and co. launched their experimental one time newspaper, the San Francisco Panorama, and the things was massive. So massive in fact that I only got around to reading a long form feature on the annual Mr. Romance contest held each year to determine who will grace the cover of those oh so trashy romance novels yesterday. While the whole article isn’t online, you can get a good taste of it on the author’s blog, here. Then try to track down a Panorama for years of good reading.-jkg
- Not spending the last weekend of the summer outside in the sun? Hungover? Watch this Youtube-housed, totally engrossing BBC documentary about Nigeria, Welcome To Lagos. It’s in a bajillion parts and long as hell, but totally worth it, even if you’re not too sure about the message behind it. And what else are you going to watch? Another Friends marathon? -am
- Taken a gander at @kanyewest yet? The Village Voice thinks West’s continued personal media assault is killing music magazines. #justsayin -am
- It’s officially soon enough to host a 90′s party. Plaid is cool again, 20-somethings are angsty and Soundgarden are back together. Sure, their new single debuts in Guitar Hero 6 and Chris Cornell is on the wrong side of 40, but this Spin profile manages to remind us of one thing: grunge is for young people *and* geezers trying to reclaim their youth. Remind me again how our generation is nothing like the one before us?
Party and bullshit: just a day in the life
Naively, I read through that NYT piece about my socio-cultural generation and our seemingly preternatural ability to avoid ‘real life’ responsibility and huffed a sigh of relief (and forwarded it on to a few friends). Yes, I thought. Finally, my suffering is legit. But, my much wiser, more astute friends and peers didn’t cop the cop out as readily as I did. And most of them are that 20-something the article listed off; listless, responsibility-free, unemployed but not uninspired. Some of them are more than that, working the kind of jobs and doing the kind of things that people over a certain age just don’t understand and pretty much anyone our age is jealous of.
But what about the rest of us. What about people like me?
These are two things that have helped make my week (and both serve as a nice segueway into this weekend’s Fan Expo) — first up, from the Flickr page of Penguin art director Paul Buckley comes some very great comics-inspired Penguin Classics cover designs (The Communist Manifesto, above):
Phoenix's transformation for this role makes Christian Bale's in the Machinist look weaksauce
What turned acclaimed, handsome, witty and charming actor Joaquin Phoenix into an unfunny, belligerent, bizarro Zach Galifianakis?
Is Phoenix really trying to become a rapper? Is he in need of mental help?
Casey Affleck’s film chronicling the last year and change of Phoenix’s life where he: quit acting, became a hermit and attempted to launch a rap career, seems like an idea straight out of Project Greenlight.
Weezer fans can't even make this stuff up
Sigh. Break ups can be so confusing.
You know, I told myself I would never post about Weezer ever again after my last rant.
Writing about them meant I cared; and I was done complaining about Rivers Cuomo and his merry band of solipsistic slackers. I wasn’t going to let them get to me.
When presented with their latest affront to art, I simply turned the other cheek (which was hard, because it’s bad. I mean, it’s really, really bad. It wasn’t slap in the cheek bad, it was a Bruce Lee kick to the face bad.) instead of giving a damn.
I had moved on. Or so I thought.
Morning Dump: Pitchfork’s upward mobility, something about everything, the goddamn Frank Miller, fake kicks real profit
- Wired magazine has a succinct story about Pitchfork’s newest feature, exclusive multi-camera online concert videos. The musical taste makers at p4k have built themselves from just-another-blog into a shepherd of hipster music fans worldwide. Wired delves into why the newest Pitchfork project — fully self funded by the Chicago site — is par for the course for indie-rock’s ivory tower; and a microcosm of the sites unerring success thusfar.
- Ever wondered what went on behind the scene in Canada’s newspaper war, and why Toronto now has four dailies? No. Hmm. How about how Chuck Palahniuk went from being a journalist, to a mechanic, to a writer, and how is grandpa shot his gramma and his dad was also murdered? Really? Nothing? How about how Bob Dylan really related to the Beat Generation, and how Allen Ginsberg was like a mentor to him? Still nothing? Wow, you’re just not interested in ANYTHING, are you? -jkg
- Frank Miller is undoubtedly one of the most influential comics artists of our time, but lately the man behind Sin City, 300 and The Dark Knight Returns gets easily dismissed as a crazy, woman-hating fascist. Such threads are found in his work, but is it possible that, post-9/11, comics fans just go for the easy read and disregard his nuances? Its one of the topics touched on by the blog Are You a Serious Comic Book Reader, which has been posting great Miller insights all week. -jc
- So have you read that New York Times article about how it’s getting harder every day to define what’s expected and what we often end up with? Oh, no, not that one. I mean the one where a reporter enters the secret world of counterfeit sneaker production in the heart of China’s industrial labour focused Putian province. If you’ve ever wondered why those Nike shoes you see on a picnic blanket in Times Square can be sold for $10 or how anybody can turn a profit on selling fakes for those prices, this is your answer. Conversely, if you’re into sneakers and are curious about insider tales concerning the businesses side of kicks, this article is a must read. -sy
Martha Stewart is convincing you that she rules.
There’s a bit of embarrassment that comes along with making a list of all the self-help/inspirational books you’ve read. For one, yes, there’s the implicit admission of vulnerability, of not being able to handle your own shit, but there’s also the need to uphold an appearance of taste. Looking at the books on this list, I have to admit, none of them even from the ones I like are exactly “good” books. Well maybe one or two, but I wouldn’t fight for them. The rest are clumsy, probably lame, are sometimes simple or cloying, are always too reminding of how boringly straightforward the process of living is.
But I think in the end that’s what separates the good from the evil — the good come from writers who aren’t afraid of “losing points” with the reader and who don’t hide their persistent personal messiness, who are unpolished and kind of worn and whose brains don’t naturally try to capture the universe in tidy marketable lists (says the guy writing a list post) or worse, catch phrases. They come from writers who aren’t selling or promising anything extraordinarily sexy. No gurus, but maybe a few wonks.
I don’t even think many (or any) of the ones I co-sign would be stocked in the self-help section of the book store. Maybe that’s the key — self-help is a genre best tackled by writers tangentially; not doggedly run through constructed stages in a life properly lived, but instead side-swiped in the pursuit of just less overall confusion. Sometimes that means road trips and spartan personal journeys, other times it means filtering everything through a thick wad of popular culture and seeing what universal truths seep through.
But what the fuck do I know. Without further ado (previous ado found here):
read more…
Oddly enough, when I google “old why guy with pipe”, I also got a pic of
Stephen Harper, and one of Paris Hilton. Photo via
Ah, New York Times, bastion of investigative journalism, defender of human rights, the fourth estate, pillar of a free society, spotter of trends, taster of foods, and of course, constantly perplexed by the age old problem: What is it about 20-somethings?
It’s always funny to see a newspaper, which we all know is run by people who are in their 40s and up, grapple with the problem of youth. “Why are they so different, why won’t they grow up, why won’t they leave home?” they ask as they sip Metamucil™ and squint at the computer screen. “When I was in my 20′s, I worked 44 hours a week for lousy pay so that I could afford a car and a home, and I accepted it because it was a nice way to live. And look at me now, working 44 hours a week for okay pay so that I can afford my home and my car, and I accept it. It’s a nice way to live.”
This highly hypothetical train of thought explains to me why so many articles are penned each and every year trying to explain some wild and crazy youthful trend (refer to: funemployment). Even obsessive navel gazing has been attributed to people in their 20s, but if they are guilty of navel gazing, then the older generation is equally guilty of obsessively gazing at the 20-something navel.
At 30-years-old, I find myself on what is referred to by the Times as, quite simply, the “age 30 deadline.” And it’s true. So true. But I didn’t need an 8,000 word article to tell me that. I’ve been telling myself that for the last 10 years :”Jesse, you don’t need to be rich, you don’t need to be successful, you just need to have some sort of semblance of what the rest of your life is going to look like.” Low standards, yes, which might explain this next quote. read more…
