This ought to solve all of upstate New York’s problems, I think.
So, I am off to the great green arboreal land that lies to the North, The Adirondacks, for the next 3 days. I’ll post some photos when I get back. I plan on catching a lot of smallmouth bass and slugging a lot of beer.
Here’s a little gem I came across by chance this afternoon when I was trying to navigate my browser to Hotmail and somehow wound up at Hottail instead. It looks like a really goodtime–wearing one of those. And since I’m taking vaguely homosexual cheapshots, I’ll go ahead and serve this one up while I’m at it: last night as I was rifling through the old vinyl at Goodwill I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the sub-title of one of Elton John’s older records. Now I know Elton John has a bit of a rascal, fuckall streak, but this one really blew me away. The image is after the cockpocket image directly below. Again, checkout the sub-title of the record.
Oh thank you Myspace.
It might be a really old saying, but Jerry Scag is the perfect example of not judging a book by its cover. On the outside, he looks like an extra from the 1983 classic movie “The Outsiders” starring Patrick Swayze and Matt Dillon. Jerry’s long dark hair and his propensity for wearing black make him look like every teenage girls’ parent’s nightmare – the brooding, rock-n-roll bad boy, and nothing could be further from the truth. “I’m actually a very shy and kind person,” he says. “I don’t always look it or sound it, but I’m the sensitive type with a hard outer shell.”
Jerry on his music:
“When I finish a new song, it’s almost like giving birth,” he says. “It’s such a good feeling. After it’s all said and done, I love my music, and I hate my music.”
I stumbled onto this absolute gem of a video clip today while perusing the endless live snippets of Zeppelin on YouTube. It’s an interview that John Bonham and Robert Plant gave just before coming to the US for Led Zeppelin’s huge MSG show in 1970. The two newsmen are a perfect example of the default tendency of humans to try and taxonomize and sort of put down anything that is foreign to them. What’s funny too is the interviewers use of the Beatles as the benchmark for understandable, sensible rock music. Even in 1970, the Beatles were doing some stuff that was pretty out there.
It’s almost laughable now to think that once upon a time there were people who thought rock music, long hair, and the electric guitar would be the undoing of the civilized world. This video is a good reminder of how threatened the people who were on the outside of the movement looking in felt. Maybe that too is why the music was so good; there was a genuine tension between the establishment and the artists. That tension no longer exists. The establishment and the artists are entwined in a art-destroying, money-making symbiosis.
Anyhow, without further adieu, here’s the awesome video. Enjoy.
When I was a kid, my friend Aaron always had the coolest stuff: An electric guitar with an amp built into it (looked way better than it sounded), Dynastar skis with Look bindings, and (the impetus for this post) Oakley Frogskins sunglasses. Frogskins (pictured below) were one of Oakley’s earliest sunglasses models. To be honest, I think the only reason Aaron always had Oakley Frogskins was because they were affordable. The more expensive early Oakley models, even then, cost close to $100. So for $40, (about what Frogskins cost in 1989) Aaron could have a cool pair of Oakleys.
Now, ten years later and thanks to a supposedly limited edition re-issue, Oakley Frogskins are back. Their obvious Wayfarrer-like shape and neon-irridescent color schemes have made them a must-have for a generation of brainless cultural expropriators. Recently, I went to Oakley.com to maybe get a pair for myself, (I never said I wasn’t one of the cultural expropriators.) and I could not believe the outrageous price. They were 120 bucks! How could a pair of flimsy plastic sunglasses that used to cost $40 have tripled in price in 10 years?
Yes, the new Frogskins have better lenses, and I’ve read that the mold injected plastic is a different material and the hinges are stronger, but that doesn’t account for the price increase. Nor does inflation.
Using a basic inflation calculator I found online, if a pair of Frogskins cost $40 in 1989, in 2009 they should cost $69. At $120, Frogskins have outpaced inflation by 74%. I don’t know why and could only guess. And does it really matter anyway when people are gobbling them up like Asian doctors looking for freebees at a medical convention. What I take away from the Oakley Frogskins case study is that people have very little interest in using a modicum of common sense to determine what the fair and reasonable price is for a product or service. If something seems like it’s overpriced, it’s not always about finding the lowest overprice, sometimes it’s best to not buy at all. With that said, as much as I’d like a pair of Oakley Frogskins, I can’t bring myself to do it given the price and what the product actually is.
A few days ago my brother, some of his friends, and I were discussing the dearth of really good albums out there right now. 2005-2007 were packed with awesome debuts, sophomore, and follow-up records, but now it looks like the music business is going through a revaluation similar to what has been happening with our economy. This is probably a good thing. Wouldn’t it be nice if the really shitty, purely hype-driven bands got out of the game like insolvent banks. That’s not going to happen, who am I kidding. But, I do think there is a new and welcomed premium for bands that actually make good music.
If you want to check out a band with a rock solid balance sheet, listen to Grizzly Bear’s new record Veckatimest (pronounced Ve-kah-tuh-mist but I’ve been calling it Veck-tah-miest). Aside from the song Dory (which is inexcusably bad) the album is seamlessly great. Unless some uncharted album comes out of nowhere, I’d say this is/will be considered the jam of Summer ‘09. Here is the video for Two Weeks, a song that is pop perfection. The video, which is awesome, was directed by Patrick Daughters who directed one of my favorite music videos of all time, Evil, by Interpol.
I’m a big fan of vertical jumping. My friend Noah and I often stage vertical jump contensts against one another. (God, that sounds gay)
I thought I had decent vert skills until my brother and sister showed me a few videos this weekend. Check them out. The first video, if you’re curious, is in response to the guy-jumping-out-of-the-pool video.
Up until about 30 minutes ago I had never heard of this chanteuse who goes by the name Dawn Landes. She’s a pretty woman who does light and poppy folksy tunes. I’m guessing that like me, you too have never heard of her.
Well, here she is doing her blue-grassish rendition of a song you most definitely are familiar with, Peter Bjorn and John’s “Young Folks.”
The cover to me says two things. One, “Young Folks” as overplayed as it was, is insanely catchy. So catchy in fact that you could probably cover it in just about any style and it would hold up. Two, this Dawn Landes girl has talent. You will be hearing more from and about her, soon.
For a guy who has a father of 100% Italian heritage, I’ve never felt particularly Italian-American. As a kid I didn’t get into mob movies or flip my shit over the Sopranos. And now especially, since living in New York City, I feel even further removed from Italian-American identity and culture. This you can blame on Jets fans and all the other grotesque versions of dego scree that live in the tri-state area. But. As I’ve gotten older, certain parts of my Italian heritage (not Italian-American) have become noticeable to me in my personality and habits.
1. I like Formula 1
2. I like soccer
3. I have some inexplicable kindred connection to motor scooters
4. I like Campari and Punt E Mes or anything else with bitters and other wonderful herbal stuff in it
Number 4 is the main point of this post. Punt E Mes is awesome. On the bottle it says that it’s vermouth, but don’t let that deter you, it’s much more. I like to drink it the same way I prefer Campari, over ice with soda and a lemon. One of the most intricately refreshing drinks you’ll drink this summer. Warning: as with any liquor with bitters in it, it’s an acquired taste.
Healthcare advertising (my line of work), for all of its shortcomings, has one thing going for it: you can’t make a claim about a product/drug without hard-evidence proof to substantiate it. And for good reason, too. You wouldn’t want drug makers claiming their pills can save your life when there’s no evidence that they can. This is much different, for instance, from saying that a razor offers a futuristically close shave. Worst case scenario, you get a five o’clock shadow a little sooner than you would have expected after spending $20 on a razor.
I don’t have a problem with consumer product marketers and advertisers saying whatever they want about their products without proving it’s true. Most of the crap people buy at Target and Walmart is shit they don’t need. Getting duped is the cost of playing the hyper-consumer game. On the other hand, when I see a behemoth like General Motors– who is in the midst of one of the largest government bailouts ever–saying that they’ve “reinvented” themselves, without any readily evident proof of doing as much, I get a little hot under the collar.
General Motors and the other big auto boys are sleeping in a soiled bed that they made. When they came to DC (via private jet) with rattling tin cups in hand, their permission to behave like a normal consumer goods was relinquished. As far as I’m concerned, everything that GM, or Chrysler, or Ford says from now on has to be proven. Nothing can be taken at face value. That’s why I have a problem with the commercial that I’ve linked to below. It’s too early yet for GM to be saying that they’ve revamped their entire existence. Prove it first and then think about airing the commercial.
Here it is, in all of it’s 60-second glory.
