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.