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« Older Entries | Newer Entries »How To E-Mail GlennBeck@FoxNews.com
[ 9 Comments ]Posted on October 18, 2010 by admin in Popular Media
Monday, October 18th, 2010Some interesting insight into viewer intelligence.
It’s really quite simple. Log in to your AOL account, and put the e-mail address glennbeck@foxnews.com in the “TO” line. Then type your sycophantic drivel, and click “SEND”. Why I am I bothering to explain how to do this? Because a while back, I sent a heartfelt e-mail to Glenn Beck, asking for advice on how to improve my public speaking skills. I especially expressed interest in how he manages to get all teary-eyed at precisely the right moments during a broadcast. I guess I wasn’t all that surprised when he didn’t respond; I mean, he’s a busy guy, what with all that gold hoarding and restoring honor and whatnot, right? So although I sent one followup e-mail (see below), the only reason I’m even addressing the topic again is to share what I consider to be an amusing indicator of audience intelligence. When I sent the e-mail to Mr. Beck, I joked with a friend that I was probably going to get a deluge of e-mails intended for GlennBeck@FoxNews.com, because back in 2002, I sent a series of e-mails to BillOreilly@FoxNews.com, and posted them on the now-defunct echopraxia.org, an e-zine I maintained for a few years. In the ensuing six months, I received over 40 e-mails apparently intended for Mr O’Reilly. I might have bothered forwarding them, if it weren’t for the profound level of stupidity required for the senders to think they were actually sending an e-mail to their hero Bill. After my followup email to Glenn Beck below, see the screen grabs from the old site to see what I mean. And take a look at the interesting comments on the piece about my previous e-mail to Glenn Beck. Read the rest of this entry »
End Of Ze World Creator Jason Windsor: Alan Smithee Of The Internet
[ 3 Comments ]Posted on October 12, 2010 by admin in Popular Media
Tuesday, October 12th, 2010There should be a term for people that accidentally create disposable viral content and then prefer not to take credit for it. Then I wouldn’t have to spend an hour of my life watching Gröûp X stick man videos.
The internet generates a lot of phenomena that calls for new terminology. I think we need a term for useless and disposable media that becomes virulently popular, but that the creator prefers to be distanced from. Sort of like an Alan Smithee of Flash animation. The other day the now-antiquated End Of Ze World animation resurfaced, and as a result, I got a little curious about who created it, and if there was any followup. A logical place to look for this sort of thing is of course KnowYourMeme.com, but unfortunately, they didn’t. Know their meme, that is. They have a slightly confusing entry that references Jason Windsor, his alleged Facebook group, and the band “Gröûp X”. It was immediately evident that the Facebook page was not in fact Jason Windsor’s, so I started searching. Who is this Jason Windsor? Who created the darn animation? And who is this Gröûp X? Well, after a wikiphiliac hour or so of digging, I think I’ve pieced it together. In spite of the fact that someone even went as far as registering the domain EndOfWorld.net to plead for the creator to come forth, and in spite of dozens of sources that credit Gröûp X, it turns it out it wasn’t that hard to get the facts straight. It turns out that the confusion stems from nerdy google-impaired webtards emphatically repeating on comment threads everywhere that “omfg u r so stupid stfu its by group x just watch bang bang bang its so obvious“. By which they mean “if you watch the video Bang Bang Bang by Gröûp X the animation style and fake accent make it clear that they are by the same person”. Which is in fact wrong; End of The World was created by Jason Windsor, a young guy from California who then apparently got hired by Wieden + Kennedy to do some spots for “Nike Sphere”, which included Stupid T-Shirts , Autumn In New York , and Perfect Conditions. Windsor has since kept a low profile, not wanting, I suppose, to be famous for a goofy animation he did as a teen. And the band Gröûp X? If you watch a few of their fan-produced videos, you can quickly see where the confusion would arise. What’s interesting is that the band and Jason Windsor have one thing in common aside from their fake accents and stick-man animations: neither especially wants to be known by name for what they’ve done. The Wikipedia page about Gröûp X says that “mentioning their true identities or nationalities is generally frowned upon by fans and band alike“. Which is probably just as well. The video clips and prank call recordings are kind of quirkily amusing, but the whole phenomena suddenly loses its charm when you read about (don’t do it!) what they’re really like. Clips below. Read the rest of this entry »
If You Loved Nirvana the Band You’ll Hate Nirvana The Band The Show
[ Comments Off ]Posted on October 1, 2010 by admin in Popular Media
Friday, October 1st, 2010It’s sort of like “Curb Your Enthusiasm” for hipsters.
Given my love of short film, I have no idea how I missed this one. Back in 2008, two guys in Toronto – Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol – created a short lived web series called “Nirvana The Band The Show”. If you like dry verite style of Curb Your Enthusiasm
Colour Trademarks: Don’t Get Pantowned
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on September 28, 2010 by admin in Popular Media
Tuesday, September 28th, 2010Cadbury and T-Mobile are probably the only organizations that defend their colors more vigorously than Crips and Bloods.
When you think of the color purple, what do you think of? How about magenta? Well I’d be willing to bet you don’t immediately think of Cadbury and T-Mobile. Which is perhaps unfortunate for them, because they’ve both gone to great lengths to establish colour trademarks . I don’t imagine the telecom company Orange struggles so much with this brand protection problem. Nor does Big Blue, in spite of long ago losing their corner on the market for the actual use of the color. And the massive conglomerate Altria seems to be trying to cover all the bases with their logo . But what sense is there in actually pursuing these kinds of trademarks? In my opinion, very little in most situations. I mean, in this context, if I ask you to think of a brand that’s defined by bright green and yellow, you’ll probably think of BP. Yet in spite of a sixteen year legal battle and their place in the relative no-man’s land of corporate colors (see below) they were unable to claim the color as a trademark in Australia. And if I mention yellow and red, there’s a fairly good chance you’ll think of McDonald’s, but they let the colors speak for themselves, and strangely more often try to protect their McName. Unlike Adidas, which has no color to protect, but defend the “three stripes” so vigorously that they sue whether you’re using two or four stripes. There are situations situations in which defending your color may make sense though, like Dow Corning protecting their pink insulation, or Tiffany defending their Tiffany Blue, which is a private Pantone color (PMS 1837) matching the year they were founded . These non-conventional trademarks can be rather amusing; although we’ve all probably worked with someone who has a “trademark smell”, I’d have to agree with the decision handed down in this case. Read the rest of this entry »
Kate Moss As New Christian Dior Spokesmodel?
[ Comments Off ]Posted on September 26, 2010 by admin in Popular Media
Sunday, September 26th, 2010I think Kate Moss would rock as one of the faces of Dior. Although maybe not for the fragrance line. Her face appearing next to their fragrance “Addict” would be a bit too meta even for my tastes.
 The obvious cheap shot. |
It has been rumored recently that global fashion giant Christian Dior may have made a deal with Kate Moss to be one of their key spokesmodels. The rumor in fact is starting right here; the source that shared the information with me prefers to remain anonymous, and the best-placed people I personally know at Dior couldn’t confirm the truth of it. But it made for some interesting conversation about whom one would choose to represent a powerful and prestigious brand like Dior. In the case of Kate Moss, this could really go either way. She clearly has a “durable” kind of beauty that adapts well across a broad range – from classy and dignified, to naively innocent, to sultry, or downright vampy. And she certainly has the identity cachet for this kind of role; even after her drug and rehab scandal of 2005, Forbes ranked her amongst their top 100 celebrities, with a “Power Rank” of 77. But if Dior is signing Moss, they might want to do some Googlewashing before they launch the campaign; a quick search of the terms “kate moss dior” just now turned up a lot of stories like this one about the night she trashed a 1930′s vintage Dior gown while out partying. It would also be an interesting move if they put her on their fragrance line; one of their hottest fragrances is of course Addict