artist of the month

Step aside Punjabi MC, we know your type. Exploiting a few rhythms for big money deals, you should be ashamed of yourself. And hey, you over there, Daler Mehndi, I love your music but your videos have become viral crack for internet surfers.

DJ Rekha has been blowing up the NYC bhangra scene for some time with her regular shows at SOBs. Just in the past year, she's crossed into mainstream with mentions on Aurgasm, NPR, and Fader. She heavily promotes her co-deejays and is becoming the new face of Bhangra in the US.

A lot of this buzz is just around her album, but give it a bit of time and she will make it past the audiophile dorks and onto dancefloors worldwide.

great longboarding video from loaded

cross-stepping, grinding gloves, weight-shifting carves, wheelies, ... things have changed, my friend.

http://www.loadedboards.com/shops/Download/Whirling_Dervish-download.mp4

Let's hear it for thew king

Happy Monday morning, everyone. Thought I would share with you some obscure Elvis facts.

----------

Elvis: 30 weird and wonderful facts

The Belfast Telegraph: Monday, August 13, 2007

Thirty years after his death, he is still always on our mind. Ed Ceaser pays homage to The King with 30 weird and wonderful facts from the life of the man who embodied rock ‘n’ roll

1. Elvis was a black belt in karate. He took up martial arts under the shotokan sensei Jürgen Seydal, while fulfilling his military duties in Germany in 1958. He was awarded his black belt before he returned to the United States, in 1960, by the chito-ryu instructor Hank Slemansky. Elvis’s love of martial arts continued throughout his life. His favourite form of fighting became American Kenpo.

2. On 21 December 1970, Presley met President Nixon at the White House. Presley had initiated the meeting with a six-page letter to the President, in which he had spelt out his desire to be made a “Federal Agent-at-Large” in the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. During his meeting with Nixon, Presley denounced The Beatles as being ‘un-American’ for their open drug-taking and anti-Vietnam politics. For his part, Nixon reminded Presley of his need to “retain credibility”. Nevertheless, he is said to have given Presley a ‘Special Agent’ badge.

3. Elvis’s first radio play was on Memphis station WHBQ, on the Red, Hot and Blue Right”, Show, in 1954. DJ Dewey Phillips played “That’s All and, a week later Sun Records had received 6,000 advance orders for the single “That’s All Right”/ “Blue Moon of Kentucky”.

4. The King’s entourage were known collectively as the Memphis Mafia. All members of the Memphis Mafia sported diamond and gold rings, given to them by Elvis, on which a thunderbolt and the letters TCB had been imprinted. TCB stood for “Take Care of Business”.

5. In 1960, when Elvis was at his post-military trimmest, he weighed a little over 12 stone. When he died, in 1977, he weighed a just under 19 stone.

6. None of Elvis’s feature films or music documentaries were ever nominated for an Oscar in any category. He made 31 movies and two music documentaries.

7. Elvis’s first public performance was at the Mississippi-Alabama competition Fair and Dairy Show. The young Elvis entered the singing dressed as a cowboy, and had to stand on a chair to reach the microphone. His performance of “Old Shep” by Red Foley earned him second prize.

8. Elvis recorded more than 600 songs in his music career, but didn’t write a single one of them.

9. Until his late teens, Elvis was blond.

10. Elvis ate nothing but meatloaf, tomatoes, and mashed potato for two years.

11. Some of Elvis’s bejewelled jumpsuits weighed more than two stone.

12. When Elvis discovered that his wife, Priscilla, had been having an affair with Mike Stone – a karate instructor and mutual friend of the couple – he flew into a rage. The biographer Peter Guralnick claims that Elvis was so angry, he said: “there’s too much pain in me ¿ Mike Stone [must] die.” But when his body-guard, Red West, came back to his boss with a price for Stone’s contract killing, the King’s mood had softened. “Aw hell,” he said. “Let’s just leave it for now. Maybe it’s a bit heavy.”

13. Elvis won three Grammy Awards – for his gospel recordings.

14. He only performed five concerts outside the United States – all in Canada in 1957. At the time of his death, he was planning a European tour. He only set foot on British soil once, when the plane taking him back to the United States from Germany stopped to refuel at Glasgow Prestwick airport. The singer enjoyed a two-hour stop over before re-boarding the military plane.

15. The last film Elvis saw at the cinema was The Spy Who Loved Me. The day before he died, though, he had tried to obtain a print of Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, to show his daughter, Lisa Marie.

16. Sometime in the early 1960s, Elvis adopted a chimpanzee called Scatter. Scatter had previously belonged to a Memphis children’s entertainer, and was trained to perform. He also had a penchant for looking up women’s skirts. Elvis found this trait amusing. A well-known wheeze was to gather his female friends together, and then let Scatter wreak havoc among them.

17. Even before the obese later years, Presley was a prodigious eater. In his 20s, he told Country Song Roundup Magazine that he could demolish eight deluxe cheese burgers, two bacon-lettuce-and-tomato sandwiches and three milkshakes in a single sitting.

18. Elvis first nourished his taste for outlandish clothes while a student at LC Humes High School in Memphis. He admired clothes at Lansky Brothers on Beale Street, but only had enough money to buy the occasional shirt. When he became famous, he began shopping there more regularly, and continued to use Lansky Brothers his whole life. Indeed, Bernard Lansky, the proprietor, is responsible for some of the more egregious fashion crimes perpetrated by the King. It was Lansky, for instance, who made Elvis’s gold lamé jacket.

19. In 1954, when Elvis was cutting some early records at Sun Studios, he auditioned for an amateur gospel quartet called the Songfellows. They turned him down.

20. On 30 July 1954, Elvis played one of his first shows, at the Overton Park Shell in Memphis. He was, apparently, so nervous, that his legs started to shake. The outlandish flares the singer had chosen to wear that evening only exacerbated the shaky movement. The girls in the audience went wild, and Elvis decided to incorporate his shaky-legs routine into future shows.

21. Elvis had a brief affair with the Swedish-American actress and singer, Ann-Margret, as they filmed the kitsch 1964 hit Viva Las Vegas. Elvis’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker, demanded that the relationship end, but his charge continued to hold a special place in his heart for Ann-Margret. Every time Ann-Margret opened a show in Las Vegas, he would send her flowers arranged in the shape of a guitar.

22. Elvis was christened Elvis Aron Presley, but his gravestone reads Elvis Aaron Presley. Elvis was christened with only one ‘a’ in his middle name, so that he would share a characteristic with his still born twin brother, Jesse Garon Presley. Towards the end of his life, Elvis sought to add an ‘a’ to his middle name to make it a biblical name.

23. Not only was Elvis a direct descendant of Abraham Lincoln’s great-great grandfather, Isaiah Harrison, he was a distant cousin of Jimmy Carter.

24. Led Zeppelin were big fans of Elvis and were desperate to meet him when they toured the US. In 1973, the longed-for meeting came to pass, when Robert Plant and John Paul Jones met the King in Los Angeles. The Zeppelins were rendered speechless by the meeting, but Elvis broke the ice by swapping his $5,000 gold and diamond watch for Jones’s watch – which featured a picture of Mickey Mouse. From that moment on, any member of Led Zeppelin was welcome in the front row of an Elvis concert.

25. Elvis collected marble statues of the Venus de Milo and Joan of Arc.

26. In 1973, Elvis gave Muhammad Ali a $10,000 white robe, with the words “People’s Champion” emblazoned across the back. Ali was touched, and wore the robe on 31 March, when he fought Ken Norton for the first time. Norton broke Ali’s jaw in the second round, before winning a 12-round decision. Ali vowed never to wear the robe again, although he maintained his friendship with Elvis.

27. Elvis’s favourite toothpaste was Colgate. His favourite aftershave was Brut. And his favourite soft drink was Pepsi.

28. This year, the American firearms company America Remembers released a special edition “Elvis Presley TCB Tribute Revolver”. The weapon, a .357 Smith & Wesson Magnum Revolver, is decorated with a picture of Elvis, as well as a lightning bolt, in 24-carat-gold. The weapon is designed, say its makers, to “honour the legend of Elvis Presley, and we are proud to offer it on one of the most powerful firearms ever used in American law-enforcement”. Elvis was himself a keen collector of guns. He had 40 weapons in his arsenal, including M-16s and a Thomson sub-machinegun.

29. The book Elvis was reading at the time of his death was Frank O Adams’s The Scientific Search for the face of Jesus.

30. Elvis wore a cross, the Hebrew letter chai, and a star of David around his neck. “I don’t want to miss out on heaven due to a technicality,” he said.

Cosmetic Surgery for the Eccentric

If stem cells, cosmetic surgery, and genetics were available for the general public, people would start doing useless things to their body. Oh wait, they already are:

 

http://hugemagazine.com/blog/?p=27

 

 

 

Steal My Idea

I stayed at a hotel that had an the iron attached to a heat-resistant mount at the base of the ironing board. And then they had a hanger for the ironing board in the closet and a retractable cord. This is way more advanced than the ironing set-up of olden times where you have to find the iron and unwrap the chord and find a place for the iron and keep it upright when not in use. Everything is in one place.

One thing would make this better ... if the ironing board's holder was a charging station for an iron, and that linked up with the hook. The hook would need to be plugged in, so you would probably have to put a 110 plug in your closet or cupboard or wherever you keep your ironing board. That way you can have a cordless iron that was always put back in it's place and always ready to rip it up.

High school volunteering

I don't know about you but the extent of my High school volunteering was food shelters and car washes for the sports team. I recently met a young woman who got involved with a program selling jewelry to raise money for medical expenses of a mexican village. And she's working to spread the word to other schools yet she's only a senior. How cool is that?

http://www.chiapasproject.org/

SC Toxic

Nuclear waste dump sites are in short supply across the US. I suspect real-estate developers are eager to clean up South Carolina and care less about the Nevada dessert.

 

---------

 

South Carolina nuclear landfill closing. Starting next summer, many power plants, hospitals, universities and companies in 36 states will be forced to store low-level radioactive waste, because a South Carolina landfill is closing its doors to them. At issue is the Barnwell County dump site, a 235-acre expanse that opened in 1971. The equivalent of more than 40 tractor-trailers full of radioactive trash from 39 states was buried there each year before South Carolina lawmakers in 2000 ordered it to scale back, because they no longer wanted the state to be a national dumping ground. As of July 1, the landfill will take waste only from South Carolina and the two states with which it formed a partnership, New Jersey and Connecticut.

 

Source: November 2, The Associated Press

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/nation/11/02/1102nuclearwaste.html

 

 

 

How about some bad design

This is a fun site that focuses on some examples of poorly designed systems. Some improvement ideas are solid, and some could be refined a bit more.Either way, this website is crack for designers. It’s like the Jerry Springer effect: you just feel better knowing that your designs aren’t on this site.

 

http://www.baddesigns.com/

 

 

Artist of the Month

Linzie Hunter, UK Illustrator, kicks ass. Here’s some proof:

http://www.linziehunter.co.uk/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/linzie/

 

Dolphin Slaughter Going on Now

Interesting event …

http://www.savejapandolphins.org/captiveIndustry.html

 

I wonder if we are being a bit harsh on the Japanese because our society portrays dolphins as more heroic animals than cows. Damn you flipper!

 

opinion-data-perception

Anyone want to play a round of opinion-data-perception?

 

This is a great observation:

http://gotboondoggle.blogspot.com/2005/10/game-of-rock-paper-scissors.html

 

 

 

White Collor Scandal

I just read the following paragraphs in AdAge. Is this worthy of US Weekly?

 

--------------------

 

One exhibit attached to the lawsuit is an image of tennis star Maria Sharapova allegedly taken by Mr. Shigeta during a 2004 commercial shoot for Dentsu client Canon. Ms. Sharapova is pictured with her legs propped up on the back of a director's chair exposing her panties as she snacks on what appears to be a can of Pringles. Mr. Biegel is claiming that Mr. Shigeta's crotch obsession led him to pass the photo around and is part of a pattern of behavior that created a hostile work environment that led him to complain. He was fired in November 2006.

Also included in the complaint is a link to a website for a Czech whorehouse. The internet home of Prague's Escade describes its services in a version of English reminiscent of Borat. Sample: "Young strippers and their performance will make you (sic) evening enjoyable." Another: "If you want to choise (sic) yourself, just call us and we take care of you. If you buy lady-companion for all night, we'll surprise you by an interesting discount." Also available is an interactive, panoramic view of the premises.

Mr. Biegel claims he and another employee were duped by Mr. Shigeta into visiting Escade but that he didn't sleep with a prostitute there despite Mr. Shigeta's efforts to pair him up.

 

http://adage.com/article?article_id=121698

 

Patch Fit

I thought this was a good way to teach fitness to
those who dislike it, be they shut-ins, kids, or the
discouraged and out of shape ...

http://patchfitness.com/

Artist Of The Month

Molly Crabapple, making burlesque art fun and spreading it to the masses. She’s getting media for her art classes in Brooklyn dives, and her watercolors aint half bad.

 

http://www.mollycrabapple.com/

 

 

Unfortunate airport security

Screeners missed most fake bombs (WTSP, 10/18/07)
http://www.tampabays10.com/news/national/article.aspx?storyid=65683

Security screeners at two of the nation's busiest
airports failed to find fake bombs hidden on
undercover agents posing as passengers in more than
60% of tests last year, according to a classified
report obtained by USA TODAY. Screeners at Los Angeles
International Airport missed about 75% of simulated
explosives and bomb parts that Transportation Security
Administration testers hid under their clothes or in
carry-on bags at checkpoints, the TSA report shows.

At Chicago O'Hare International Airport, screeners
missed about 60% of hidden bomb materials that were
packed in everyday carry-ons — including toiletry
kits, briefcases and CD players. San Francisco
International Airport screeners, who work for a
private firm instead of the TSA, missed about 20% of
the bombs, the report shows. The TSA ran about 70
tests at Los Angeles, 75 at Chicago and 145 at San
Francisco.

-------------------------------

What's an ODAM NAP?

http://odamnap.blogspot.com

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Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around

http://mail.yahoo.com

best blog ever

My new favorite site

http://mustachesofthenineteenthcentury.blogspot.com/

 

ecofuel closer to consumers

Bio-diesel stations are now popping up with unleaded fuel stations. Ethanol stations popping up as well.

artist of the month

Adam Neate. There, I said it. He's seen as a Grafitti artist but his style is more contemporary at times.

Recent Gallery Exhibit:
http://www.elmslesters.co.uk/exhibitions/exhs15.html

His Page:
http://www.adamneate.co.uk/

Top Hits:
http://cloudking.com/artists/adam-neate/
http://www.woostercollective.com/2006/03/event_adam_neat_sells_out_in_london_on_a.html
http://www.artofthestate.co.uk/graffiti/adam_neate.htm

Artist of the month

As many of you know, I've had a watch thing for the past year or two. Most people look at pilot watches or swiss as the pinnacle. I found inspiration in Japan.

Issey Miyake is a legendary fashion designer who has made a name for himself by experimenting with high tech textiles, methods of pleats and seams, and a perfume line that smells like moldy wood on me.

He's been on the scene for a while and has many design interests. Keep an eye on him; he's not done.

Email business

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America 175 Million Email Address
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Australia 6 Million Email Address
Canada 10 Million Email Address
Russia 38 Million Email Address
England 22 Million Email Address
German 40 Million Email Address
France 38 Million Email Address
India 12 Million Email Address
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Energy, Minerals & Metals 6,765,683
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Food & Agriculture 1,235,354
Gems & Jewellery 565,438
Health & Beauty 804,654
Home Supplies 323,232
Industrial Supplies 415,668
Office Supplies 1,559,892
Packaging & Paper 5,675,648
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lego mystery

A giant Lego man washes up on the shores of the Netherlands. Is this an art project going wrong or a marketing stunt gone right?

See full article here.

Signing Up For A Board

Short and simple article reproduced below:
---------------------

Before You Join That Board...

By Executive Leadership, August 2007

Being asked to join the board of a hospital, charity or school certainly can boost the ego. But, to make sure you say “Yes” for the right reasons, ask these four questions, recommended by seasoned board members:

1. “What do I bring to the table?” Is it knowledge of your field, financial savvy or something else? If your experience resembles that of the board’s other members, decline and volunteer where you will make a difference.

2. “When will I know I’ve completed my job on the board?” You should be able to invest a year or two to reach very specific goals. Just “being there” will drain your time.

3. “What has the board accomplished in the last year, two year and five years?” Don’t join a board that takes up a lot of members’ time in meetings or retreats without accomplishing much.

4. “May I talk to three or four current members before I join?” Ask, “What difference can I make?” If a clear picture doesn’t develop, consider turning the invitation down.

Artist Of The Month

Andrew Hem, Cambodian living in Culver City.
http://www.andrewhem.com/

I wish I said it

Speaking on how things suddenly become popular ...
"Commerce and culture only overlap when it is commercially viable, not culturally viable."

-- Marc English
Adholes, 10 July 2007

Artist of the Month

Leeds-based Paul “Moose” Curtis is pioneering an art known as “reverse graffiti,” using a shoebrush and water to selectively erase dirty surfaces. His bio describes a life immersed in music and this art just kinda became something he could make money at. Fun stuff and aesthetically pleasing. And begs the question: Can you get arrested for cleaning the sidewalk?

Marriage Trends

A very interesting article in this week's Economist: http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9218127

Basically, the article discusses the gap between people who have babies in their teens versus those who don't. It equates young marriage and child-rearing with lower education levels, higher poverty, more chance for divorce, and more of the repeating cycle. And it shows this gap rising over time.

It also supports the education of what marriage is and raises questions about the glorified importance of marriage to Americans beyond the core idea of continuing the family line, where as countries like Italy and India stress that importance.

The marriage gap within the US makes me wonder about consumption being tied to a mass of people single without children. With the rising number of people waiting to have greater responsibility, has this aided to our more consumer-based culture? Sure not all people are single and gluttonous, but the single people are sometimes put on a pedestal. Rarely do I see the media value a stable relationship without the bait that it gets you tangible stuff.

Food for thought.

Willy Warmers

This is actually for sale!

Recycling for architecture

Patagonia's offices are made out of reused materials and aiming to be off the grid. Tru Yoga is a green space in the consumption-friendly city of LA. Lot-ek recently submitted an idea to use old airplanes fuselages for the interior structure of a library in Mexico.

I was listening to Lee Iacocca on NPR go on about how Detroit is in the past and how he see the future on electric/fuel combo cars. When asked what got him to this POV, he said it was paying 8 bucks to see a PowerPoint on the big screen. I've seen the Al Gore phonemenah with my friends and with strangers. More people are freaked out by the end of the world. And it's becoming hip to care. Same Underneath is pushing green clothes onto trendy people while Delta and major airline brokers are backing carbon neutral flights. But back to buildings ...

Even with all the old building abandoned buildings in cities, it's still not hard to justify building new ones. Maybe location is not right, or layout, or construction, or parking. Like BP's green gas station, recycling materials for new buildings is "a little better." Not as good as moving back to the city.

Steal My Idea

Exclusive ads on TV to increase effectiveness.

NPR doesn't really advertise. They take in sponsors and spit out their message in a typical NPR tone. The print world has made a fortune off of magazine-specific advertising, most notably GQ's advetorials and The Fader's CPG ads. And even Wal-Mart and Target ask for customized POS. Why hasn't TV done the same?

What if NBC asked Audi to come up with an ad, but that ad could not be on any other channel? The incremental ad production may be cheap while media will be the same price.

I suspect viewership may boom on a network offering unique ad content. The ads will be paid attention to in a more active way by some viewers. The consumers won't feel as bombarded with crap they've seen before. Agencies and production companies will have more business.
And the network will begin to create more of a brand in all 24 hours.

Now I know it is not possible to mandate for all advertisers, and local affiliates and political ads will present some challenges. But if you received a discount for following the network's culture, that may incentivize enough. Who knows; maybe you can even get the network to produce network-specific ads for you.

Biomega Bikes

Biomega unleashed their bicycles on the world around 2004 and have been tearing up the bike world with high design. Their cruiser is available at DWR for about $1200 and their commuter through Puma. These bikes are hyped as the 21st century bike for good reason. They replaced chain with drive shaft. They use new materials like plastic-aluminum combos. And they use crazy wheels.

Who is Philip Mangano

Philip Mangano's name rolled off Malcolm Gladwell's tongue the other day and I had to learn why.

He was a Bush appointee and has been working to fight homelessness in the US. It's funny he shares his name with a mafia don.

Some stats: 34 m Americans live below poverty, estimated 3 m homeless.

Mangano has been traveling the US holding press conferences on homelessness. This issue has not been a Bush admin hot button but it has been impacted. Large Section 8 housing cuts needed counter-spin by an investment in helping the homeless without families get back in the workforce. Mangano has been shuffling around federal funding from one homeless program to another. Either he's hoping to get his agenda across with a radical shakeup or he's demanding more accountability and not finding it. Either way, I am not sure why Gladwell thinks he's so great.

This may just be one more instance where government passes off social programs to the non-profit sector. In Costa Rica, rural schools grow crops to pay for amenities like books and paper. He has been working closely with churches and local groups to solve the problems. Though Mangano has been working with California heavily, the evidence of his impact may lie in New Orleans. Keep your ears open to see if he's worth the hype.

Comparison Shopping

Progressive designed their whole advertising campaign off of comparison shopping, but I used them and felt a little overwhelmed with the plan features and a little skeptical of the prices they compared with. It turns out I was better off going to someone else.
Travel aggregators and shopping aggregators were some of the first online players to get comparison shopping right.
Survey Monkey is doing comparison shopping in a more honest way. They recognize that their savvy consumer is going to want to look around and they are making life easier by giving them links to other sites. They are also giving a pitch on why you should choose them even if they are not the lowest. Smart marketing.

Dog-on-doll action

I don't know why someone didn't create this before ...

Artist of the Month

Nouvelle Vague is only the second musician to get pinned up here on AOTM. They are a french collective founded in 2003 who cover 80s punk and new wave songs in a bossa nova style.

Does the world really need another album of covers? No, but the founders of this collective just seem to find the most sensual sirens to sing these songs. And they took creative leaps on this to make the songs sound so fresh and appetizing. Hear them at myspace or pick up their self-titled. Just one earfull and you wont be able to stop humming.

The birth of corrupt cops

Philip Morris has finally started bribing police for their time to handle their crimes (full story).

Is this $50,000 simple civic fundraising, or a return to corruption of law enforcement. Will this lead to a growing mercenary force known as the LAPD? Can I hire the police to patrol my Beverly Hills block or my quiet suburb instead of wasting time in crime infested ghettos?

On the flip side, why can't big companies sponsor police departments and buy them gifts and equipment? The government isn't pitching in as much as they should. As long as it doesn't directly correlate to their assignments, as long as no link can be made between priorities and money, I no change in how effective is law enforcement. And if LAPD does more contract policing, it will help them be accountable. It makes when giggle when I imagine the LAPD doing a cost analysis and calculating overhead into the project.

This latest event with P.M. rubs me a little in the wrong direction.

April Fools

So my family held me back from doing any April fools day jokes at work. The confetti over the doors didn't fly. Neither did the industry-rattling press releases I drafted. Oh well, I can live vicariously through Google.

Artist of the Month

Though AOTM is normally a section dedicated to recognizing new artists, I want to use this time to recognize an under-appreaciated man.

Carlo Mollino was a true renaissance designer. He did furniture, buildings, cars, and photographs. He lived a life of an intellect, a playboy, an adventurer, and an Italian.

You can see his work here.

kinky japanese

Not all japanese are kinky, but this guy certainly was. And it sounds like he was in shape too. I can just imagine some guy going down to the police station to claim all 4000 of them ... for his wife

Steal My Idea

So Chrysler is going down in smokes. Big automaker can't seem to sell enough cars to keep doors open. Daimler's unhappy. What's a girl to do?

Saving Chrysler by bringing back the ornate brand:

Sure efficiency is a nice thing, fuel consumption and aerodynamics are the talk of the town. But Chrysler can't compete anymore with the big fish at the big fish games.

It should sell the plants it has in prime real estate to boost cash flow, put that cash into existing plant renovations and R&D, and come out with 50 unique products in small batch runs available for a limited time (maybe reissued after 4 years when significant improvements have been made).

In the US, brands like Maserrati, Lotus, Maybach, Bentley, and Ferrari are thriving, and the Fords and Caddys and Dodges of this world are making imitations for affordable options that are inconsistent with their brands. Caddy these days is more of an upscale GM than it's own brand.

Chrysler is in the right spot to design American Luxury Cars. Make cars that stand out and hold up but you have to act fast to get one. It can dominate with cars like the Prowler and PT Cruiser. The US auto market is craving a modern-day collectible car. An American car that harks back to the 50s when portholes and fins were all the rage.

Alternative Uses in Design and Reality

Jane Fulton Suri of IDEO and Richard Wentworth have eyes for catching interesting uses of the world around us. Just take a look at their pictures and feel inspired to notice the many "band aid" solutions that can be applied in our lives. Jane also has a book coming out on the subject, and her website and Flickr site are becoming a forums for these band aids.

Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard would ask: how can we take one tool and put it to many uses? Though there will always be a limited-use luxury market, it's is increasingly important for the masses to design for multiple purposes.

Working to Retire

In the USA, college graduates have high expectations that they are going to be successful, make it rich, and retire in their 30s. For those that actually do retire in their 30s, I have to wonder what example you give your kids. Hear me out.

In Asia and Latin America, there is a deep respect for elders. One works hard through their life and supports their parents. And you raise your kids hoping that when the time comes they will take care of you. It seems like the biggest difference here is that people work to retire the previous generation, and build on their success through the next generation. With this model, everyone wants the next generation to be as successful or more than the previous.

The American model of striking it rich and then giving your kids an easy life is not a sustainable model. But most entrepreneurs follow this. And this whole generation of middle- and upper- class kids is mentally relaxing, not working to their full potential in part because their pressure to succeed is not as high as in Asia and Latin America. To be more competitive, should something change in America?

Steal My Idea

Not everyone can afford to buy a DaVinci or a Rembrandt. You don't see too many Caravaggios in your friend's living room, but you really love his work. Lithographs and posters are sooo dorm room, don't you wish there was some way to show off your interest in art while still portraying an air of contemporary sophistication?

Step 1: Take 3-10 of your favorite pieces and find images on the internet (do a google image search for large files). Maybe mix and match new with old artists, but definitely put in some pieces that are 300+ years old.

Step 2: Size them all so that they are the size of post cards.

Step 3: Print them on your photo-printer.

Step 4: Put them in identical frames that has a diagonal of at least 28", 1 picture centered per frame. Try a white/cream canvas background, glass cover, black wood frame. Something like this. For the more adventurous, try an even more contemporary frame.

Step 5: Show off at your next party. Maybe line a hallway or stagger in a room.

The Clinton Jinnah Tale

I've been looking at the pictures in this article for nearly 2 weeks now, and even have a few collectables of my own. Among the many incidents that Jinnah has been accused of, he made the FBI's list for his "scheme to funnel money" to the Clintons. As sneaky as he seemed, I wonder if he just really loved to give money to and take pictures with Bill and Hillary.

Urban Planning Geek

The East Biloxi community rebuilding plan.
This is one of many post-Katrina projects. 76 pages of boring and generic planning. It is compassionate and somewhat detailed, but I can't help but think East Biloxi deserves better. That we can really take these projects and make them something huge and exciting.

Artist of the Month

Mark Kirschenbaum is a master paper folder. Check out his warlord mask and cobra snake.

But he made AOTM for his exhibit on dirty origami.

Though he has competition, I see good things for Mark this month.

T-Bell Rats

Rats at a NYC Taco Bell afterhours, as seen from the street just outside the W4th subway stop. Just one more reason why NYC eating is overrated.

Click Here to see the video

Tough Marketing Job

NY Times did an undercover story on the life of a magazine subscription seller reveals a world of low lifes, whores, drugs, and poverty.

Finally some good journalism.

People join up with the magazine crews after high school to travel the country, to get out of their parents' house. They end up forming these gang-like bonds with their magazine crew mates and live in some rough conditions (by both choice and intimidation). There is very little regulation in the industry. Hopefully things will change.

Best magazine ever

Titty City. This small little zine has huge fun writen over it. It also has "short lived zine" and "guerilla photo submission competition" writen somewhere on this concept.

Steal My Idea

Fueling stations have pretty much been focused on price and branding. It's a commodity. Service is actually scorned upon, as evidenced by the decline of full-service stations. As gas prices go up, gas stations really need to differentiate themselves. And I'm not talking about adding techron to their fuel, but that's a start.

Super-Premium Gas Stations

- One aisle for "on-the-go," where you fill up your mid-grade gas and pay with credit card while filling.
- One aisle for shoppers, where you stop and can either go into the store or order via kiosk if you don't want to get out of the car.
- One aisle for full service which does oil change and car wash within 10 minutes.
- Special fuels: European Sports Car , Drifter, Stop & Go Commuter, Hydrogen, Ethanol, CNG, ...

Poo gets down

I don't really understand why, but I'm not complaining. See the video for yourself.

ATHF

I love the Aqua Teen Hunger Force guys. They can totally crack me up. They are gaining in popularity. And they even got featured on one of the best hip hop albums of 2005.

But the folks at Turner have mixed feelings following someone's misinterpretation of advertising for acts of terror. Bedlam in Boston. Come on, do you have to be that dumb to think that this is a threat?

An okay kind of idea, nothing great or groundbreaking, but it really backfired for Cartoon Network's future advertising tactics. Interference should have told the city first, they should have gotten the permits for sure before mounting little devices to the sides of buildings. With a little bit of advanced notice, the campaign could have run a lot smoother, or been vetoed. $2 million in fines is not a pretty picture and may be hard to justify in ROI. Peter Berdovsky and Sean Stevens were 2 kids who probably stumbled on a craigslist ad about a job of hanging light boxes on the side of a building and thought they'd make a few extra bucks. Now they have lawyers fees and 10 seconds of fame. What a destructive campaign ...

The only way I can spin this around is if we lobby cities to be more forgiving about advertising messages so that people don't have to plot out guerrilla campaigns with so much secrecy.

Chocolates for Women

Valentines day is brewing. As much as I shy away from scheduled celebrations, this is a nice time to reflect upon some naughty habits that we may have neglected.

Maybe it's time to pick up a box of Diane Kron's K Sensual Chocolates and make a night of it. She's been hyping up her female-only chocolates for years. Maybe the 4-point restraints are more what you had in mind. Either way, it the time of the year to step it up.

Couch Surfing

Looking for a free place to crash and maybe some new friends. Adventurous travelers should spend a little time at this site before their next trip. According to an article about them in Good Magazine, this is like a friendster for drifters, a nomadic myspace, and a potential lawsuit if it gets any bigger. Right now, it seems to be a group of merry strangers gently using each other to travel on the cheap.

Rise in alternative sports

The '90s saw extreme sports. The '00s are seeing hipster sports.

Hoosierweight Boxing was a cool little St. Louis thing that was nothing to snarf at. My friend Apillow Creed just competed in a Pillow Fight competition in Brooklyn. Another friend was injured in an arm wrestling competition a few years back. Beach Tennis, anyone? There are several professional Rock-Paper-Scissors organizations poping up. Soap Box races are seeing a comeback through NASCAR, and even a reinvention with the annual race across the Brooklyn Bridge that leaves many bruised and wasted. And who could forget, dodgeball and kickball are taking over intramurals.

Will the '10s see a return to soccer and more mainstream sports?

When did bob saget get cool?

He wowed me with his 2006 film. This is brilliant, totally immature and fun. Check out the preview.

And according to his website's theme song, Bob's the "illest muthaf*cker in a cardigan sweater." How did this happened to the Full House guy? And will Martha Stewart and Tony Blair follow suit?

Architecture for Humanity

The organization promotes architectural and design solutions to global, social, and humanitarian crises. They celebrate the power of good design. They recently asked the world to design a new logo for them. Humbling experience or cheap labor, I'm not sure. But it worked. Some info on the ongoing logo competition recently.

sketchup

Google recently released an improved 3D CAD software. Is there anything these guys can't do? It's free for playing around, and you can upgrade to a professional version or share your designs with the world.

When I think about all the hours wasted in video games, Sim City and Sim Tower ate up as much of my time as Zelda. They felt like living games and I was the emperor. Well, Google wants you to play Sim Campus, a promo to build buzz and trial of SketchUp, and build up their 3D database. Very smart.

Artist of the Month

I feel so much cooler for knowing about this.

Of course I am not any cooler. I actually am more of a lame-o hype builder for bringing this up, but I love my silver ring from French streetartist and metalsmith Hoon.

The double-knuckle ring is so in right now ... says me. In the US, you can find his jewels at Reed Space on Orchard or Atmos in Harlem.

lessons learned from my gimpy phase

On July 29, 2006, I was horribly injured skateboarding in Seal Beach at 1:30am. Now I don’t want to pass blame, but I’m pretty sure it was my damn flat feet that delayed the union and kept me on crutches for 5 months. As I go through physical therapy now, I would like to share some things I learned by being disabled.

Everyone feels guilty when they see a disabled person. Smiles turn to grimaces, people start to say “I’m sorry,” and a crippled can never get used to women holding doors open for him. But to reject any of these jesters of help would cause discomfort in those around. It’s a tough situation.

Most attempts at being helpful in this world, from attempted extermination of rats in Hawaii with the mongoose or the liberation of the Iraqis with a destabalized government, has a potential of harm to it. Like I said above, everyone wants to be helpful. Most often these people tend to get in the way or cause more discomfort than assistance. You have to learn to laugh at it and not let it make you bitter.

Vicodin can knock you out solid for 6 hours, but give you some great dreams in the days afterwards. Some painkillers can cause loss of bladder-stopping power. I think it’s called incontinence, but that’s such an old-person’s word.

It’s illegal to drive with the left foot on the gas pedal.

No body can really know the pain or the frustrations, but a lot of people can empathize with the challenge of using restrooms.

Smoking is harmful to bone regeneration.

The best crutches in the world are by Keen Mobility. I’ve felt so free and functional when using them. They are even great on the beach as long as you don’t get sand in the shaft. I never thought of myself as disabled when I had them, and parting with them for the cane gave me a slight case of Stockholm Syndrome.

Savoring hardships is the best way to grow.

No one really cares about crowding handicapped ramps. Able-bodied people actually prefer them to stairs, in spite of a line of cripples waiting to use them.

HMOs suck. They really value processes over patient health and cost reductions. It’s really bad business; I don’t get it.

My physical therapist knows too much about the artist formerly and recently known as Prince.

Crutches are an amazing workout. Abs, arms, and the working leg. Great cardio, too.

It’s very easy for crippled people to be mistaken for criminals when grocery shopping.

Being on crutches gets you all kinds of cred. Homeless people see you and say, “oh man, that sucks.” Girls (in my dreams) want to nurse me back to health. Strangers want to share war stories. It’s a social lubricant.

Canes are a social repellent. People see those on canes as weak for the long haul.

The weakest I’ve felt has been in PT, when very normal things such as walking on my toes seem unimaginable.

It’s very easy when you are in pain 24/7 to not realize how curt you are with people.

Handicapped parking is everything they say it is. Same with early boarding on air planes.

The guys who cart you around airports in buggies or wheel chairs can be slower than you on crutches.

People will tend to send you emails about famous people with similar injuries. In my case it was con artist Heather Mills and dance guru Bill Shannon and "hard core sitter" Aaron Fotheringham.

It’s a lot of fun to tell fellow injured people that their lives would be easier if they just amputated.

Stiff

I'm reading Mary Roach's book, Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers. A few fun facts:

Our flatulence comes from bacterial waste products in our digestive tract. The dead can fart.

People prefer to say beef to cow, pork to pig. We have a hard time with dead animals and people.

Proctology made surgery a credible field. It was once a field of trial and error, black magic. Then in 1687, a French king had an anal fistula. The rest is history.

Dogs can be trained to find a dead body dumped in a lake from decomposition gasses leaking to the surface.

Anatomy students are given cadavers with their heads and hands wrapped. Those are the most emotionally charged body parts.

Embalming fluids make the penis bigger. Without the fluid, bacteria will bloat one’s testicals to the size of softballs.

Composting and tissue digestion are the next hot things in funeral services.

Behind UT Knoxville, there’s an open space where forensic researchers watch bodies decomposing in a wide variety of ways.

Necrophilia is illegal in only 16 states.

The Taliban forbids human body dissection, so students sometimes commit criminal acts to study the body on their own. A lot of the world used to forbid dissection.

Maggots feeding on fat sound like Rice Krispies.

In Sweeden, cremation is very popular due in part to a policy where after 25 years your grave is reopened and dug deeper so that they can bury someone on top of you.

Design for Sale

Some of my favorites sites for useless, innovative, and/or pretty:

Compact Impact - Gadgets

GreenerGrassDesign.com

A list from Core77.com

menu.as

Dune Furniture

Desiron

Woah Torpedo

Click Here

Martyr Saddam

The whole Saddam case was as botched as the case for war. First his trial took too long and did not seem orderly. Then his future trials are canceled. Then his year-end execution is rushed in like someone trying to beat tax day at the post office.

But I was shocked flying through O’Hare yesterday to see the broadcast and rebroadcast of Saddam’s execution on some grainy hidden camera. Sure he was an awful person, but give him some respect in his final moments instead of rubbing it in. It’s this type of insensitivity that ruins our image outside and captivates/satisfies the mainstream within our borders.

Should we be proud as Americans to execute Saddam? I don’t feel that way.

This following article paints a very human picture of the man post-Iraq. Some parts funny, some sad. I only clicked the link because Google-News told me Gore Vidal wrote it, but I'm not so sure about that now.

Web Link