Too much?

I don't always invent new words, but when I do...



Scroll around my other little baby, the award winning Hot Acid Rhythm for all-new vibescaping.

Oh Hellz Yeah

Ideas That Changed the World

I was given this book many years back. The author, Felipe Fernandez Armesto, portrays human history in terms of a series of intellectual and conceptual discoveries, adopted and understood by civilizations over time. I think it almost works better than a regular history book in the sense that history as a discipline is too much of a backward narrative for me. One tends to think of history as event-facts. But events are almost entirely the result of ideas, or sub-ideas (like the idea that say, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand needs to die).

When I see the world in terms of ideas and ages, and ages made from ideas, then everything makes so much more sense. Something like the whole of religion looks like just another man made idea, like cooking one's food, or democratic rule.

As the book begins from prehistoric time, one already is given a sense of the whole of humanity and what it means to be a race that grows off/with/out of planet earth.

By understanding, in this way, the ages and every smaller increment of time possible, I believe one is in a far better position to make educated predictions about the cycles or ages of at least the relatively near future. At least that's how I see it.

Check it out on Goodreads

This is advertising

Seriously great work by Glenn O'Brien.

Why? On brand, on brand, on brand.

Something something

Marge: Sweetie, you could still go to McGill. The Harvard of Canada.

Lisa: Anything that's the something of something isn't really the anything of anything.

License to Kill

If you enjoy a quality turn of phrase as much as the next guy, or as I do, look no further than one of my favourite angry old men, Christopher Hitchens.

His book God is not Great is quite addictive and conveniently available as an audiobook. I like it not so much because I'm interested in the debate or the history, which is obviously highly engaging, but more because the debate is long gone and it's just nice to hear the burn. Listening to him read his own words is a treat not to be missed.

You should probably be somewhat of a fan already, though, and as one reviewer puts it, "he often delivers his ideas like he's trying to splash his martini across your face at a party." He is by no means for everyone.

While you may be inclined to listen while multitasking(!) you will likely find yourself stopping whatever you're doing and rewinding(!) certain parts over and over, just to bathe in his sparkling correctness. If you're not convinced yet, maybe this Amazon review will tip the scales:


Listen here

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Now here is a chap that you should follow on facebook (at the very least) for his illuminating and thought provoking ideas. I first read Fooled by Randomness about two years ago and was mightily impressed. I have since been following him on facebook and on his website. This is a sample of his interesting (and topical) thinking:


For one of the smartest big-picture conversations out there, listen to this 45 min Interview. He talks mostly about the deleveraging of the banks, proper global finacial leadership, and risk in general, from the perspective of someone who truly has the survival of humanity at heart.

I like everywhere that this man's head is at. Nassim Taleb will make you smarter and more interesting.

Aristotle once said

Or more accurately, "All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind."

This has to be the most relaxing house in the world

or maybe this is



or this



Click to enlarge.

My music bits

A couple of tracks have been on rotation on my ipod and in my head for quite some time now. I figured I ought to share some that I'm still not bored of, and that still represent my headspace, generally speaking. I think there is definitely a certain creative thread through all of these...

I saw Gorillaz at Madison Square Garden last year and it was easily one of my top five gigs of all time. Started out slow, but by the end it was like being inside a circus. Unbelievable.




Love the 80s-ness but not quite-ness.




Just plain fookin creative. The man is a genius.




Air France is the business as it is. The first time i heard this I was in an apartment 49 floors up, in the middle of a snow storm. One of those how-did-this-turn-into-a-party-oh-wait-now-I-remember nights...




Aaaaah!




And finally, this reminds me of closing time at the coolest hole-in-the-wall restaurant in NYC. Good times...

You've gotta love Applespeak

Seriously, get a load. Click to enlarge.

What's up with rugby fashion?

As a former/part-time colony dweller, I've never been that impressed by the British. Except that one time when my mate Paul did a stand-up comedy set back in the Obz days and cracked some wicked-funny AIDS jokes. But that was then. So I'm a little curious as to the British shop aura about the intersection of Bleecker and Charles Streets in NYC. An intersection-aura, if you will.

Within about a 25m radius of one another there is a Ralph Lauren Rugby store, a Gant Rugger store (amusing) and a Burberry Brit store (in case Burberry wasn't British enough for you already it's now more British) . These are not seasonal clothing collections, they are fully fledged sub-brands. Actually Gant Rugger looks more like American-preppy-plaid-tending-toward-baseball but I nevertheless sense that there is some unspoken and rather permanent equity to being British right now, at least in the US.

I won't say it's a trend because I haven't really seen people adopting the look quite as much as I have seen stores popping up, so I can only describe this as a rather insistent aesthetic.


Try not to laugh... I mean, cool logo bro.


Nobody's laughing now


"Mine's just a few blocks from here - what do you say? Did I mention I'm British?"

Roach

click to enlarge

Meh

Actually kinda depressed for not having claimed the name way back - could have made a fortune. How obvious was that... Jeez.

Ben Kingsley for Santam Insurance - No no no no no no!

click for video here

This ad actually caught my attention because of the voice-over copy alone.

It's some of the most contrived writing I've come across in a long time. I'm certain if I'd heard only muffled tones coming from a TV in the next room that I'd still be able to say how try-hard it is.

"It may look real, sound real, say all the right things. But how do you know you're getting the real mccoy?"

This is insurance. It's really a lot like selling toilet paper.

How does one know, Santam/KingJames? How do we know your insurance will live up to our expectation? For all the toney-tone we have to endure, this doesn't pose much of a logical case.

The concept, which as far as I can tell is: "Other people claim to be better but...[nothing]" well, this needs a bit of work.

The main issue I have with all this is that I know just how much publicity this spot will get simply because Sir Ben graced us with his presence, and that that will be deemed job well done. But this, does not good advertising constitute.

On top of that, my eyes are still burning from the grossly oversimplified blue/gray grade that South African commercial directors can't seem to get enough of.

Up with which I will not put.

The sciences ask, why.

The arts ask, why not.

Has someone said that already? I dig it.

FYI

Tagline:

SunTrust Bank - Live Solid. Bank Solid.

Where do I begin? Do I begin?

Absolut bottle tops and Illy tin lids. Wait, what?

Go find an Absolut bottle and twist the lid on and off a few times. Now go and do the same with a tin of Illy coffee. Sick!

Is this a kinetic aesthetic? Whatever it is, more of this vibe is needed everywah.

New vibe: Toning

Reduce to the core, see detail - efficient, healthy, pure.

Oh it's new...

To be a rockstar

You've got to have pain. And more importantly, you can't kid yourself about how in touch with your emotions you are. I'm not going to mention exactly which recent documentary I saw on a "multicultural contemporary South African band" that made me think of this.

You can't sell your political ideologies (as they are probably less than informed) and you can't keep thinking about what your audience wants to hear (they are hardly a yardstick). You have to sell your feelings and your honesty - sell your pain. Even if all you have is happy pain.

Right, anti-virus software... where to begin

I've been without anti-virus software for around five years. The day I removed it from my work computer, my productivity went up at least 20 percent, due mostly to the poor thing not choking itself to death with constant and untimely scans and update procedures (updates at least a weekly occurrence requiring something like a 50meg download each time).

Most of these scans also happen (unavoidably) on startup - which is kind of an inappropriate time, considering I shut it down the night before. I promise nothing has happened in this time, dear programmers, and when I get to work I expect to be able to work and use programs, not be faced with a little twirly icon in the corner as the only evidence of life for the next half hour.

In fact, on occasion, mister anti-virus was scanning and updating so hard he couldn't even twirl his own icon. After the fourth or fifth time that happened, and a few therapy sessions later, I realised I was in fact on candid camera. Off with his head.

I also have not had this software on my personal laptop since I bought it new two years ago and have never been happier. I just don't do anything too stupid. Now I'm not saying that anti-virus companies are the ones inventing viruses, or at the very least inducing some sort of low-level panic - I'm not saying that. I mean I'm just saying...

If You Think In Pictures:

Check out my tumblr blog here

That Slimy Bastard

I love the Barbie and Ken campaign on billboards around NYC. And I think it's because they only show Ken.

I mean... I like girls, but there's just so much left to the imagination. It takes the whole Barbie concept from being just an object and a doll, to reminding people of the captivating soap operas that once took place inside so many little girl's rooms around the world.

Not so sure about the inevitably-cheesy-as-shit reality show Genuine Ken that is associated with the campaign (the real cash cow) but it's otherwise a great way to get people thinking and remembering.

Anyway, I always knew Ken would make a comeback.

Update Your Music

Pravda23 is my one of my dearest friends, whom I have know since we were both five years old. That makes 24 years. He has also been creating music since that long ago.

He is a self taught guitarist, pianist, drummer and violinist who has over the past years also recorded, mixed and mastered his own music at home, often making videos of the results to create new concepts in music production, performance and consumption. Right now he's in South Korea getting his groove on, where he performed a live DJ set in a public toilet. No bushit.

John Bartmann, as he is otherwise known, is an advocate of open-source music making, and produced The Kuleshov Effect, an album that explores the idea of re-releasing music again and again in updated, remixed or reworked versions.

If you're into innovative and generally crazy music making, or even are interested in being a part of a collaborative effort, go to Pravda23.

The Earth Speaks

So the earth has apparently decided to communicate with humans by means of the sides of Chipotle packets.

It's sort of like the subway ads that you read because there's nothing else to look at. You look up, instantly regret it and are left feeling a bit depressed. I'm sure customers would be fine with a blank bag, and it would give whichever intern wrote it more time to make better coffee, which would in turn (sic) hopefully make everyone have better ideas. Or are they making media commission on litter too?

Picture it, you're sitting in a Chipotle late at night, crying into your take-out because you didn't pull at the club, you look around, and the only thing in view that grabs your attention is a brown bag with writing on it. You read it, and cry a little harder.

What some may regard as flair, is really just clutter. Leave the bag blank, you'll be fine. I promise.

Tagline:

Range Rover - Powered by Intelligence

Well that's a fookin burn.