The latest issue of Adbusters magazine is, I think, the best they’ve published to date.
If you have a copy, I recommend spending some time reading Kono Matsu’s scrapbook of the EarthWorks media campaign (Kono is the creative director or Powershift, the marketing wing of adbuster’s parent organization, The Media Foundation). It is a facsinating window into the workings of activism and advertising.
Well done, adbusters.
While perusing an extensive list of MP3s I stumbled across an album that I recorded with my old band Horton’s Choice. We wasted all of our attention spans and money recording the CD and didn’t have anything left over to actually duplicate any.
Bottom line is, there are about seven copies of this CD in the world. Having spent a lot of time and money recording it (don’t get me wrong, it was an incredibly low budget and only took a week, but everything is relative, right?), I offer it to you.
You can download the whole album, tentatively un-titled The Borden-Carleton Sessions, at MP3.com except for one track which can’t be posted on MP3.com for legal reasons (email me if you have high-speed internet and curiosity).
Oh, dear. What does Carpal Tunnel Syndrome feel like?
[UPDATE – added 25 minutes later]
It turns out I only ache when I’m doing boring or unpleasant work.
In addition to having some fine websites, I have recently discovered that Prince Edward Island is also home to some fine tunes courtesy of windom earle.
On an unrelated note, I have stumbled across a full length, high quality streaming Catherine Wheel concert.
Imagine a website where you could:
Then imagine that it’s all easy to find and navigate, quick to load, and resists the temptation of self-indulgent multimedia.
If you are lucky enough to live on Prince Edward Island then you already have a website like this: www.gov.pe.ca. “Website architecture and construction by Reinvented Inc. for the Government of Prince Edward Island, Canada”. I build websites and I fancy myself a fine critic of effective sites. This one is insanely great.
Thanks to some pervasive media campaigns (most significantly that of Mothers Against Drunk Driving) our generation has done a pretty good job of stigmatizing drunk driving. You’ll still encounter a few nuts and jackasses that insist they’re “<drunkspeak>ok to drive</drunkspeak>” but in general it’s understood that driving drunk is really stupid.
Having grown up with tag-lines like ‘Friends don’t let friends drink and drive’ burned into my subconscious I find it very odd to hear an oldie-olson1 talk about how drunk driving was common when they were growing up. This is the same generation that claims they didn’t know smoking was bad for you2.
This got me thinking: Old people are stupid and I am smart.
Upon further thinking, this premise seemed somewhat unlikely. Then it dawned on me: What do I do that that is so stupid it will make my kids wonder how we even managed to reproduce? The answer: Sleep deprived driving.
Having just gotten back from an all night drive to Halifax and back to deliver a “friend a co-worker” to the airport on his trip to New Zealand (the bastard), I can attest to the stupidity of driving while over-tired. Fortunately I had a fellow aov author to share the driving duties.
Bottom line is, driving while over tired is really stupid3.
Taglines from what is possibly one of the worst marketing campaings I have ever witnessed:
Because .com is for old people.
The global MUsic Domain has launched! Declare your independence now!
The screamin’ streamin’ Domain for people who love music, movies, hot cars, sports and lots of partyin!
It goes on, but I’ll spare you the rest. If you haven’t guessed already (and why would you?) the above cheese is in support of the new .mu domain. Go here to get the full experience complete with guitars, cars and cleavage. I don’t have adequate words or bile to describe how unbelieable god-awful this site and ad campaign are. This guy apparently has two more top level domains appearing soon. Live in fear.
Amazing! A former writer for Letterman marched into a dot-com company’s offices, claimed a desk and started ‘working’. He was there for three weeks before he got busted. Then he wrote about his stunt for The New Yorker.
That is art. TheStandard.com tells the rest of the story.
What is it about non-profit and bureaucratic organizations that possesses them to get mugs, pens, pads, and t-shirts branded with their logo. Admittedly, I have an inordinately large collection of mugs. In my defense, however, I didn’t pay for any of them. They just appear.
The Four Neighborhoods Community Health Centre is a good example of a typical mug producing organization. They are an organization that provides supplemental health care to the local residents to take the strain off the hospital (at least that’s what I think they do, don’t take my word for it). This sounds good enough to me. My question: Where the hell do mugs come in to the picture?
The best I can figure is that when people are put on committees and don’t know what to do, this is when it happens: “Oh, I know, let’s get mugs!”. The world continues to mystify me.
Oh, Alanis Morisette, you are so very wise! You’re high but you’re grounded, you’re sad but your laughing. Oh, you are so wise (but at the same time green)! You’re this, but then you aren’t! What a paradox you are Alanis! What a contradiction you are. You are the thesis and the antithesis. You are a fucking conundrum.
Ok, I’m done. I feel much better now. Sorry.