A YouTube clip of my new favourite author Tom McCarthy talking about his new favourite author Georg Trakl.
Labels: Literature
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Sunday Evening Tunage
COMPUTER VS BANJO
You can be pretty sure that if you meet someone at a party and they tell you that they are "cool" or claim to be "the funniest person you have ever met", they are certain to not deliver on that promise. Indeed they will no doubt prove to be quite boring and you will find yourself desperately searching for a way to escape from the corner that they have backed you into. Such innate traits never require a lead-in and the genuine article will be so oblivious as to wear them like a second skin. With that said, I offer you "Computer vs. Banjo", a band which, as their name suggests, mixes digital samples with a folksy blues sound.
Give Up On Ghosts
Now, my first thought upon being presented with this concept was that there are a shitload of musicians walking the line between the analog/digital worlds these days and doing it very well (Beck, Tunng, Radiohead?!?) but they don't find it necessary to proclaim it in the title of their band. Computer and Banjo seem almost too aware of the fact that they are taking a folksy genre and adding drum machines beneath it. The whole endeavour immediately comes across as "clever " --a trait that is about as shallow as piss on concrete and for this very reason, the two elements never quite gel, instead it remains in the realm of gimmick.
JOSEPH ARTHUR - VAGABOND SKIES
For the longest time now, I have had a tune in my music library called "A Smile That Explodes" by an artist named Joseph Arthur that I find unbelievably sublime. I did not know where it came from (figured it was caught in some late night tuna net style Acquisition binge) but it repeatedly found a place in my mellower playlists.
A Smile That Explodes
But upon the arrival this afternoon of Arthur's EP Vagabond Skies, I can only assume that this above first taste was courtesy of my good friends at Sneak Attack Media.
Now, this would probably be a good time for me to admit that I have really only been listening to Burial as of late with its minimalist-fried-synapse-twitching-hour vibe and other twisted and strained rhythms of a similar ilk. It all just seems appropriate as I'm weaving through my caffeine-fed urban morning landscape. But Joseph Arthur could single handedly pull me back into the world of melodic instrument and human driven tunes again. Aside from Second Sight (which is strangely out of place on this album and really not all that good) this album recalls Neil Young at his best. Give a listen to what is by far the best track, She Paints Me Gold:
She Paints Me Gold.mp3
COMPUTER VS BANJO
You can be pretty sure that if you meet someone at a party and they tell you that they are "cool" or claim to be "the funniest person you have ever met", they are certain to not deliver on that promise. Indeed they will no doubt prove to be quite boring and you will find yourself desperately searching for a way to escape from the corner that they have backed you into. Such innate traits never require a lead-in and the genuine article will be so oblivious as to wear them like a second skin. With that said, I offer you "Computer vs. Banjo", a band which, as their name suggests, mixes digital samples with a folksy blues sound.
Give Up On Ghosts
Now, my first thought upon being presented with this concept was that there are a shitload of musicians walking the line between the analog/digital worlds these days and doing it very well (Beck, Tunng, Radiohead?!?) but they don't find it necessary to proclaim it in the title of their band. Computer and Banjo seem almost too aware of the fact that they are taking a folksy genre and adding drum machines beneath it. The whole endeavour immediately comes across as "clever " --a trait that is about as shallow as piss on concrete and for this very reason, the two elements never quite gel, instead it remains in the realm of gimmick.
JOSEPH ARTHUR - VAGABOND SKIES
For the longest time now, I have had a tune in my music library called "A Smile That Explodes" by an artist named Joseph Arthur that I find unbelievably sublime. I did not know where it came from (figured it was caught in some late night tuna net style Acquisition binge) but it repeatedly found a place in my mellower playlists.
A Smile That Explodes
But upon the arrival this afternoon of Arthur's EP Vagabond Skies, I can only assume that this above first taste was courtesy of my good friends at Sneak Attack Media.
Now, this would probably be a good time for me to admit that I have really only been listening to Burial as of late with its minimalist-fried-synapse-twitching-hour vibe and other twisted and strained rhythms of a similar ilk. It all just seems appropriate as I'm weaving through my caffeine-fed urban morning landscape. But Joseph Arthur could single handedly pull me back into the world of melodic instrument and human driven tunes again. Aside from Second Sight (which is strangely out of place on this album and really not all that good) this album recalls Neil Young at his best. Give a listen to what is by far the best track, She Paints Me Gold:
She Paints Me Gold.mp3
Labels: Music, The Payola Chronicles
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
On The New City..
"The amount of building becomes obscene without a blueprint. Each time you ask yourself, Do you have the right to do this much work on this scale if you don't have an opinion about what the world should be like? We really feel that. But is there time for a manifesto? I don't know."
--Rem Koolhaas
--Rem Koolhaas
Labels: Architecture, NY Times, Signs of Our Time
Monday, July 07, 2008
Creating a Brand Periphery
David Armano posted an interesting article today over at Advertising Age about online personal brand presence in which he offers the following 3 guidelines for creating an online profile:
1) Engage in Personal Publishing
2) Be Your Own Agent
3) Be Authentic
Sound advice from the cowboy-hat wearing Twitterer (the man's got personal branding down cold!). But I would like to offer something to the mix on this topic that I have been thinking a good deal about lately, that of creating what I call a Brand Periphery Profile.
Now in order to define this term, I must begin by talking about its opposite, which I don't actually have a name for but logically would be defined as your Brand's Nuclear Profile. This is essentially the online profile that appears when someone types your name into a search engine. This is what Armano is speaking of in his article and, as he wisely advises, it should be kept on as tight or loose a leash as you deem appropriate to your public identity while still always remaining as authentic as possible.
Your Brand Periphery on the other hand is created in the echoes of what you are talking about or linking to online. It is not what shows up when someone googles your name but where you show up when someone is googling something seemingly unconnected to you. For example a search for "gonzo logo design" finds my site in the top 3 as a result of both an authentic and quite calculated association on my part with the good doctor HST and my pursuit of Great Counterculture Logos. Similarly, I take guilty pleasure in the fact that I rank number one for the search string "A new violent conception of life", a phrase derived from the manifesto of an Italian anarchist group who poured red dye into Rome's Trevi Fountain. It is really just creative SEO but in reaching out and connecting to these external personas and images and language, you are also pulling these elements into your Brand's Periphery and in turn, making them a part of who you are online.
Take it a step further and this can become a relevant strategy for small companies as well. Coudal.com for example has aligned themselves with film director Stanley Kubrick, dedicating an entire category of their blog to him alongside the more general topics of Art, Architecture, Film etc. That their interest and passion toward the man and his work is genuine is without question; but in creating this connection, by placing Kubrick into the Coudal brand's Periphery, they are harnessing the qualities associated with Stanley Kubrick -- passion, focus, vision -- for their own brand identity (and rightly so I might add).
Of course all of this is seemingly small potatoes in light of what large corporations have been doing for years with celebrity endorsements and lifestyle advertising. But it offers the little guy a similar opportunity and, if done authentically, should come about as a natural side effect of sharing what you are legitimately interested in.
So then, the question becomes "what strange far off corner of the internets do you want to be found?"
David Armano posted an interesting article today over at Advertising Age about online personal brand presence in which he offers the following 3 guidelines for creating an online profile:
1) Engage in Personal Publishing
2) Be Your Own Agent
3) Be Authentic
Sound advice from the cowboy-hat wearing Twitterer (the man's got personal branding down cold!). But I would like to offer something to the mix on this topic that I have been thinking a good deal about lately, that of creating what I call a Brand Periphery Profile.
Now in order to define this term, I must begin by talking about its opposite, which I don't actually have a name for but logically would be defined as your Brand's Nuclear Profile. This is essentially the online profile that appears when someone types your name into a search engine. This is what Armano is speaking of in his article and, as he wisely advises, it should be kept on as tight or loose a leash as you deem appropriate to your public identity while still always remaining as authentic as possible.
Your Brand Periphery on the other hand is created in the echoes of what you are talking about or linking to online. It is not what shows up when someone googles your name but where you show up when someone is googling something seemingly unconnected to you. For example a search for "gonzo logo design" finds my site in the top 3 as a result of both an authentic and quite calculated association on my part with the good doctor HST and my pursuit of Great Counterculture Logos. Similarly, I take guilty pleasure in the fact that I rank number one for the search string "A new violent conception of life", a phrase derived from the manifesto of an Italian anarchist group who poured red dye into Rome's Trevi Fountain. It is really just creative SEO but in reaching out and connecting to these external personas and images and language, you are also pulling these elements into your Brand's Periphery and in turn, making them a part of who you are online.
Take it a step further and this can become a relevant strategy for small companies as well. Coudal.com for example has aligned themselves with film director Stanley Kubrick, dedicating an entire category of their blog to him alongside the more general topics of Art, Architecture, Film etc. That their interest and passion toward the man and his work is genuine is without question; but in creating this connection, by placing Kubrick into the Coudal brand's Periphery, they are harnessing the qualities associated with Stanley Kubrick -- passion, focus, vision -- for their own brand identity (and rightly so I might add).
Of course all of this is seemingly small potatoes in light of what large corporations have been doing for years with celebrity endorsements and lifestyle advertising. But it offers the little guy a similar opportunity and, if done authentically, should come about as a natural side effect of sharing what you are legitimately interested in.
So then, the question becomes "what strange far off corner of the internets do you want to be found?"
Labels: Shameless Self Promotion, The Brand Periphery
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
"I like to paint people in black and white because people are temporary"
Friday, June 20, 2008
The Little Give
4 teams. 4 charities. 48 hours to make a difference. Karyo Edelman's The Little Give kicks off today. Check back to the site as the event progresses for on location Twitter updates and of-the-moment Flickr coverage.
4 teams. 4 charities. 48 hours to make a difference. Karyo Edelman's The Little Give kicks off today. Check back to the site as the event progresses for on location Twitter updates and of-the-moment Flickr coverage.
Labels: Collaborators, Shameless Self Promotion
Friday, June 13, 2008
Field Tested Books 2008
The team over at Coudal.com are back at it with the launch of the 2008 edition of Field Tested Books, a collection of book reviews by a variety writers, each with an interesting twist. As Jim explains:
"We had this notion that somehow through experimentation we could identify how our perception of a book is affected by the place where we read it. Or maybe the other way around. Maybe it’s possible to determine how a book colors the way we feel about the place where we experience it."
This year, the ever-experimental crew are trying their hand at book publishing by offering the Field-Tested Books collection (including all three years of FTB reviews) "in a handsome trade paperback". I was quite honored to be asked back as a contributor, and in return submitted a gonzo-inspired review of "The Proud Highway" by Hunter S. Thompson as read in Bangkok. (My 2006 submission, "Siddhartha, on a train between Madrid and Barcelona, Spain" can be found here.)
A perfect way to blow a Friday morning: peruse the website, buy the book and be sure to throw it in your backpack this summer when you light out on your own great literary adventure.
The team over at Coudal.com are back at it with the launch of the 2008 edition of Field Tested Books, a collection of book reviews by a variety writers, each with an interesting twist. As Jim explains:
"We had this notion that somehow through experimentation we could identify how our perception of a book is affected by the place where we read it. Or maybe the other way around. Maybe it’s possible to determine how a book colors the way we feel about the place where we experience it."
This year, the ever-experimental crew are trying their hand at book publishing by offering the Field-Tested Books collection (including all three years of FTB reviews) "in a handsome trade paperback". I was quite honored to be asked back as a contributor, and in return submitted a gonzo-inspired review of "The Proud Highway" by Hunter S. Thompson as read in Bangkok. (My 2006 submission, "Siddhartha, on a train between Madrid and Barcelona, Spain" can be found here.)
A perfect way to blow a Friday morning: peruse the website, buy the book and be sure to throw it in your backpack this summer when you light out on your own great literary adventure.
Labels: Collaborators, Literature, Shameless Self Promotion, Travel, When the Going Gets Weird
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
The Politics of Punk
"I thought punk would fade like disco, and with any luck, be replaced with a musical movement led by artists who could actually play their instruments. But in the ambulance, the maniacal vibrato and caustic quips of Dead Kennedys lead singer Jello Biafra had me gaping.Forever etched in my brain are his Tourettes-like rants about the perils of chemical warfare and the unmitigated cruelty of Cambodian dictator Pol Pot, dueling with the wailing siren as my buddy and I wove through rush-hour traffic."
–Patrick Ambrose writes "Jello Biafra and the Politics of Punk" at The Morning News
–Patrick Ambrose writes "Jello Biafra and the Politics of Punk" at The Morning News
Labels: American Hardcore, Music
Monday, June 02, 2008
"Gonzo" Trailer
Trailer for Alex Gibney's (The Smartest Guys in the Room, Who Killed the Electric Car) Gonzo.
Trailer for Alex Gibney's (The Smartest Guys in the Room, Who Killed the Electric Car) Gonzo.
Labels: Film, When the Going Gets Weird
Monday, May 26, 2008
Wong Kar Wai Sells Out..
For Philips Aurea.
For Lacoste.
For BMW (starring Clive Owen, Mickey Rourke, Adriana Lima and Forest Whitaker).
For Lancome (again starring Clive Owen).
For Dior (starring *cough* Eva Green).
For Softbank (starring Brad Pitt) here, here and here.
For Philips Aurea.
For Lacoste.
For BMW (starring Clive Owen, Mickey Rourke, Adriana Lima and Forest Whitaker).
For Lancome (again starring Clive Owen).
For Dior (starring *cough* Eva Green).
For Softbank (starring Brad Pitt) here, here and here.
Labels: Asian Cinema, Auteurs on YouTube, Film, Wong Kar Wai
