Popular Media

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Faceless Alien Guerilla Marketers

[ Comments Off ]Posted on July 3, 2008 by admin in Popular Media

Thursday, July 3rd, 2008

What’s up with the mysterious faceless aliens spotted around England lately?

Web Urbanist has an interesting eight-part series on guerrilla marketing. It covers topics ranging from the early history of guerrilla marketing to contemporary flops like the Aqua Teen Hunger Force fiasco in Boston (but was that a flop?). They also do a reasonably good job of clarifying the difference between guerrilla vs viral marketing . I wonder if they have a scoop on the mysterious faceless aliens spotted around England recently?

Hasselhoffian Recursion Cures Alzheimer’s*

[ Comments Off ]Posted on July 2, 2008 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture, Popular Media, Technology

Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008

At last, a remote for your remote.

As a friend fumbled for her reading glasses the other day, I made the tired joke about the paradox of needing glasses to find your glasses. She added that she’s always forgetting where she left the remote, and having to (gasp) walk across the room and manually change the channel. This is something I’m sure we’ve all experienced, but need experience no more! Thanks to products like the “Remote Buddy“, pictured at left, your fat American rear can spend more time on the sofa, and less time burning precious body fat as you frantically search for the remote. In fact, with these handy “finder” tools, you’ll never lose anything again. I could start rambling about remotes for the remote for the remote, but instead, let’s just take a look at the Hasselhoffian Recursion . It’s been a while.
*Sometimes a headline is just a headline.

Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust

[ 1 Comment ]Posted on July 2, 2008 by admin in Music, Popular Media

Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008

By the time I learn to pronounce “Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust”, Sigur Rós will have released their next CD.

No, that headline is not some coding error. Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust (which apparently means “With a buzz in our ears, we play endlessly”) is the new release from Sigur Rós, of Iceland. I’d heard of them, but this is the first recording I’ve listened to. And listened, and listened. The cover art is perfect; if this stuff doesn’t make you wanna get nekkid and play on the freeway, you need help. Apparently a lot of the tracks were recorded without dubbing, and the sheer freshy-freshness of the performances shine through. Don’t be fooled by the apparent simplicity of these tunes though; especially on tracks like “Gobbledigook”, they’re doing some whack stuff with meters and tricking you by using simplistic percussion lines. This recording is destined for some “Best Of” lists at the end of 2008.

PunkTards Rule

[ 1 Comment ]Posted on June 28, 2008 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture, Music, Popular Media

Saturday, June 28th, 2008

Differently-abled punk band Heavy Load are out to demonstrate that disability rocks.

The temptation to make jokes about how I’ve never met a punk band member who wasn’t differently-abled or worthy of a term like “punktard” (hey, did I just coin a phrase?) is overwhelming, but I’m too grown up and what these guys are doing is just too cool. Meet Heavy Load, “Brighton’s Answer to the Ramones” (their words). These guys are on a “mission to demonstrate that disability rocks”. Learn more about them at HeavyLoad.org. There’s also a movie being made about them, and they’re running Stay Up Late, “A campaign for people with learning disabilities…fighting for the right to party!” Being a gimp has never been so hip. He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Differently-Abled Brother.

Record Industry Begs World: “Please Stop Buying Music!”

[ 1 Comment ]Posted on June 25, 2008 by admin in Music, Popular Media

Wednesday, June 25th, 2008

Why does the recording industry want radio stations to stop playing music?

In the ongoing saga of the RIAA just not getting it, they are apparently tired of suing old ladies who don’t even have computers and dead people and are now trying to kill their oldest and most reliable channel of cheap promotion, radio. Although the recording industry historically was quite happy to pay the broadcasting industry to play music (illegally, in fact – it was called payola), they now seem to think it should be the other way around. Click on the image at left for a detailed flow chart of how the RIAA decides whom to sue.

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