Logo-Free Blog
From the New York Times Magazine:
“Dylan Coyle, who is 24, studies music at San Francisco State University. He has been a vegan for five years and is a careful consumer. Last year, somebody asked him what he wanted for Christmas, and he said he wanted a pair of Blackspot shoes. This was a considered choice: the shoes are made from ‘vegetarian materials,’ including organic hemp and recycled tires. They are manufactured in a ‘safe, comfortable union factory’ in Portugal and sold by the creators of Adbusters, a magazine best known for its withering critique of the advertising business and of mindless materialism. Instead of a logo — or as its logo — the Blackspot is decorated with a rough circle meant to suggest the obliteration of branding; the shoe Coyle wanted is called the Unswoosher, in an unsubtle reference to the most famous shoe logo of all, Nike's swoosh.”
I’m trying to get my mind around this. We’re supposed to want to buy this shoe because its logo isn’t really a logo? It’s a declaration of death to all logos? And since when did recycled tires become "vegetarian materials?"
A Night Out!
The Dread Bride and I took in the Symphony this week, where we saw a performance by Austrian composer HK Gruber. The program was called FRANKENSTEIN!! (Yes, with two exclamation marks.) He composed the music. The lyrics were by Viennese poet HC Artmann. It was just wonderful. It was like watching your favorite drunk uncle reciting bloodthirsty nursery rhymes. With an orchestra enabling him!
Subject matter included: a mouse nibbling a man’s eye, Miss Dracula, Goldfinger, John Wayne, a blood-soaked monster tidying up, a “mi-ma-monsterlet,” a werewolf, Frankenstein (of course), a flying circus rat, Robinson Crusoe (turned cannibal), Superman, the sinister green-haired man (“who likes to eat the ladies”), Batman and Robin, a monster in the park, a baby vampire, Grete Muller (another vampire), and a dead mouse about to become a pistol holder.
Inexplicably, for such a crow-pleasing concert, it was rather sparsely attended. I suspect the fogey subscribers only stagger out of their manses for Mozart.
Sample lyric:
Frankenstein is dancing
Frankenstein is dancing
With the test-tube lady
With the test-tube lady
And my little daughter dear, my daughter dear, it’s you!
And my little daughter dear, little daughter, it’s you!
Herr Gruber’s Austian accent made the program all the more compelling.
Domestic Spying
“Privacy advocates” are in a snit about the revelation that spies are recording every phone call ever made in the United States. Curiously, the American people don’t seem too riled about it.
President Bush, defending his actions, told us: "The privacy of all Americans is fiercely protected in all our activities. The government does not listen to domestic phone calls without court approval. We are not trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans."
He sounds more aggrieved each time he talks these days, like a put-upon principal whose high-schoolers just won’t behave.
Pass the jackhammer, luv.
From Reuters: “More than 60 percent of Britons use items such as screwdrivers, scissors and earrings to remove food from between their teeth, according to a survey published Friday.”
But will it clean teeth?
From Reuters: “Some say Britain's pungent blue-veined Stilton cheese smells of old socks. But its fans have turned the rare odor into a perfume.”
Sick of The Da Vinci Code yet?
Dr. Erwin Lutzer, pastor of Moody Bible Church in Chicago: "There is a huge battle going on today on who has the best telling of the Christian story. People want to believe the Da Vinci Code so badly because they want a Christ who is manageable, a Jesus that is not going to challenge you or threaten your lifestyle."
Unlike religious conservatives, who want Jesus to give them business tips. Dan Brown’s biggest achievement, in my opinion, is that he managed to make heresy seem silly.
Don Quixote Lives!
I forget where I read this (Slate maybe?), but copywriter Ray Del Salvio wants to turn the word "concept" into verb. He has started a blog, and a letter-writing campaign to get the word into Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.
Some might wonder: "Why?" To which Del Salvio would probably reply: "Why not?" Personally, I can't concept of this campaign going very far.
“Dylan Coyle, who is 24, studies music at San Francisco State University. He has been a vegan for five years and is a careful consumer. Last year, somebody asked him what he wanted for Christmas, and he said he wanted a pair of Blackspot shoes. This was a considered choice: the shoes are made from ‘vegetarian materials,’ including organic hemp and recycled tires. They are manufactured in a ‘safe, comfortable union factory’ in Portugal and sold by the creators of Adbusters, a magazine best known for its withering critique of the advertising business and of mindless materialism. Instead of a logo — or as its logo — the Blackspot is decorated with a rough circle meant to suggest the obliteration of branding; the shoe Coyle wanted is called the Unswoosher, in an unsubtle reference to the most famous shoe logo of all, Nike's swoosh.”
I’m trying to get my mind around this. We’re supposed to want to buy this shoe because its logo isn’t really a logo? It’s a declaration of death to all logos? And since when did recycled tires become "vegetarian materials?"
A Night Out!
The Dread Bride and I took in the Symphony this week, where we saw a performance by Austrian composer HK Gruber. The program was called FRANKENSTEIN!! (Yes, with two exclamation marks.) He composed the music. The lyrics were by Viennese poet HC Artmann. It was just wonderful. It was like watching your favorite drunk uncle reciting bloodthirsty nursery rhymes. With an orchestra enabling him!
Subject matter included: a mouse nibbling a man’s eye, Miss Dracula, Goldfinger, John Wayne, a blood-soaked monster tidying up, a “mi-ma-monsterlet,” a werewolf, Frankenstein (of course), a flying circus rat, Robinson Crusoe (turned cannibal), Superman, the sinister green-haired man (“who likes to eat the ladies”), Batman and Robin, a monster in the park, a baby vampire, Grete Muller (another vampire), and a dead mouse about to become a pistol holder.
Inexplicably, for such a crow-pleasing concert, it was rather sparsely attended. I suspect the fogey subscribers only stagger out of their manses for Mozart.
Sample lyric:
Frankenstein is dancing
Frankenstein is dancing
With the test-tube lady
With the test-tube lady
And my little daughter dear, my daughter dear, it’s you!
And my little daughter dear, little daughter, it’s you!
Herr Gruber’s Austian accent made the program all the more compelling.
Domestic Spying
“Privacy advocates” are in a snit about the revelation that spies are recording every phone call ever made in the United States. Curiously, the American people don’t seem too riled about it.
President Bush, defending his actions, told us: "The privacy of all Americans is fiercely protected in all our activities. The government does not listen to domestic phone calls without court approval. We are not trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans."
He sounds more aggrieved each time he talks these days, like a put-upon principal whose high-schoolers just won’t behave.
Pass the jackhammer, luv.
From Reuters: “More than 60 percent of Britons use items such as screwdrivers, scissors and earrings to remove food from between their teeth, according to a survey published Friday.”
But will it clean teeth?
From Reuters: “Some say Britain's pungent blue-veined Stilton cheese smells of old socks. But its fans have turned the rare odor into a perfume.”
Sick of The Da Vinci Code yet?
Dr. Erwin Lutzer, pastor of Moody Bible Church in Chicago: "There is a huge battle going on today on who has the best telling of the Christian story. People want to believe the Da Vinci Code so badly because they want a Christ who is manageable, a Jesus that is not going to challenge you or threaten your lifestyle."
Unlike religious conservatives, who want Jesus to give them business tips. Dan Brown’s biggest achievement, in my opinion, is that he managed to make heresy seem silly.
Don Quixote Lives!
I forget where I read this (Slate maybe?), but copywriter Ray Del Salvio wants to turn the word "concept" into verb. He has started a blog, and a letter-writing campaign to get the word into Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.
Some might wonder: "Why?" To which Del Salvio would probably reply: "Why not?" Personally, I can't concept of this campaign going very far.
posted by Merle Kessler at 3:18 PM
2 Comments:
Indeed, that performance does sound crow-pleasing! No doubt vultures and condors would like it, too.
-D.E. :-)
(gets a kick from exploring the wonders of the strange parallel universe of the "typo")
The crows were ecstatic! But then they're easy to please.
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