The Election Y'all

I have never been so truly and honestly moved by the political apparatus of this or any other country as I was last night. The sense of community and the unadulterated feelings of hope and joy as myself and a myriad of other New Yorkers watched the election results roll in was truly incomparable. Unfortunately these feelings were muted by cynicism and sad to say, realism, bred from the last eight years of shady politics, stolen elections and general disillusionment with the political process.

Beer in my hand, smile in my face, I was happy to say and see last night that the process can and does work. Both as a Caribbean / African-American male and as a citizen of the world I swelled with pride as I watched President elect Obama make his acceptance speech. I truly believe this time heralds good, or even great things to come and I salute all those who helped make this happen and hope that in time those that railed against the idea of Obama come to see that this man is truly of and for them.

Coming from a non religious individual ‘God Bless America and God Bless the World”

brandtags.net bum out, but not quite rant

So, I just happened to randomly be researching Noah Brier, as I completely blanked on his name and my curiosity was especially piqued, because I saw who he worked for, and had just had a rather enjoyable, informal meet and greet at Naked Communications last week.

Anyhow, after satisfying myself that I remembered the name from likemind, during looking through his website and reading across a number of his projects, lo and behold I came across brandtags.net (http://www.brandtags.net) and was immediately crestfallen.

For a short while now, as I've confided to several friends, I've been thinking about launching a similar sort of site. I first thought of the idea after reading the Wired magazine article about the Big Word Project (http://thebigwordproject.com/) and started racking my brain (passively) for relatively simple, yet smart ideas that could catch on big and earn revenue from multiple streams all the while engaging with the concept of Web 2.0 and general community, or even moreso, consumer interaction, feedback, and definition.

My idea of this brand perception project was one that would have resulted in more data being mined, and also provided for more brand interaction/feedback, but would basically, and I stress basically, be the same concept. While I don't think this is going to 100% preclude me from still launching my idea as I believe I could do some really interesting and great stuff with it, it has taught me one thing, which I continually preach and don't always practice and that's 'Just Do It'.

Yes, I know NIKE came up with that a long, long time ago and don't in anyway intend to claim to have been scooped on that too, but it is without a doubt a very true call to action. In the spirit of the last lecture, my life policy of 'No Regrets', and all other things telling us to act and act swiftly this is yet another example of the importance of making moves and not sitting and planning every aspect of something until you look up and it passes you by. Anyhow, kudos to Noah Brier and if all goes well look for my 'retort' in the next year or so.

Breaking News

Ok, so I just noticed something while watching a breaking news special on MSNBC regarding a fire at an assisted living complex in West Bloomfield, Michigan. Why are the senior officials who are all supposed to be running or at least supervising operations doing extended interviews with multiple news stations?

I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that if the news is still breaking, that is, the event or crisis is going on you should be working towards averting, containing, or at the very least trying to handle the crisis and not answering banal, trite questions from news anchors.

And don’t think this is an isolated incident either. In fact, this actually triggered my memory of news coverage of almost every single incident where something messed up is going on. I know the news is important and I’m the last person that lives in any sort of bubble, making a constant and concerted effort to keep abreast of current events around the world, but hey trust me I can definitely wait an extra 5-10 minutes, or even a whole couple of hours if it means shit’ll go right instead of someone getting hurt, dying, or things just generally not going as well as they could have if someone was doing their job instead of sounding or looking pretty for the camera.

Oh, and btw…I turned back to MSNBC a couple minutes later and while only smoke was visible on like one floor before, now the entire building is covered in flames.

Good job.

Coat of Arms - Street Wear Culture

Brian Procell and Naghman Chaudry’s Coat of Arms, opened May 4th, and aims to be the premier location for high end fitted caps in New York. The 400 square foot retail space is brought to life by 70’s vintage flocked demask wallpaper, Ralph Lauren Studio Purple paint and mahogany shelving with brass accents. The store plans to carry its own brand of custom fitted caps as well as a mix of street wear and fashion brands such as WESC, Eriffs, Secret Destiny, Evisu, Freemont and Subscript. In addition they will stock 80’s deadstock Starter, The North Face, and Obermeyer jackets and a selection of collectible toys. As well, they will also soon be acquiring some extensive vintage collections of Polo Sport USA.

While we are seeing a proliferation of stores and companies with similar ideas (especially in the fitted cap market) that seem to be competing for the same clientele there obviously seems to be a market for this as despite constant closures and fierce competition many companies continue to thrive in an already cluttered market. Partially buoyed by hip-hop/sneakerhead culture and partially buoyed by Japanese street culture obsession it seems as if these stores will continue to exist until the next big cultural wave comes. However, in some respects it seems like these stores might be around to stay for a long while yet as fitted hats are blowing up, as can be witnessed by the meteoric rise of the now ubiquitous New Era fitted cap which is now present in not just hip-hop culture, but skate culture, and other youth cultures. As well, with the cultural cross-overs and hybridizations, such as hip-hop/skate (look to Lupe Fiasco, Pharell, etc. or even at many young hip-hop kids skating around Manhattan) many staples and trademarks of one culture are spreading to the other and brands from one culture are collaborating with the other such as the DC/New Era collaborations. On the other hand the turn to the 80s and 90s in sneakerhead culture is keeping demand for classic deadstock high as Nike and other companies continue to release kicks with colorways one can only describe as reminiscent or definitive of eras past. Come on, I dare you, just try finding some gear released this season to go with those hot pink and neon yellow Air Max’s you just copped.

COAT OF ARMS
43 Clinton St (Between Stanton & Rivington)
New York, NY
Hours: 11am - 8pm, 7 days a week

Optimus Prime Voice Changer Mask

It’s really a shame, but even if my current situation gets better, I think I’m destined to be broke. Every time you think you’ve seen or bought the dopest thing you just have to have, the next thing comes out. Right now, my current obsession is the Optimus Prime Voice Changer helmet. The design is from the new Michael Bay movie which means its 10 times “slicker” than the cartoon (not to upset any purists), but everyone knows slicker doesn’t necessarily mean better and either way, simply put, the helmet is badass.

As sketch as I must have looked wandering around Times Square’s Toys ‘R’ Us trying to find this helmet and the Optimash Prime Mister Potato Head (see above post) I really couldn’t care less because this thing is hot to death. With a demo, on and off mode and 3 buttons, one for the transformation sound, one that issues one of 5 phrases such as “The DECEPTICONS must be stopped” and “AUTOBOTS…roll out!” as well as the kicker, a button that makes your voice sound like OPTIMUS PRIME’s radness is bound to ensue. As much as I hate biting and people rolling out in the same thing I’ve got to say I can only look forward to the day when I see a posse of people rolling down the street in Optimus Prime helmets.

http://www.hasbro.com/default.cfm?page=browse&product_id=19455

Facebook vs MySpace - The Social Networking Showdown

I’m probably overstating this, but personal experience, compounded by a recent adweek article has me asking, is MySpace going to go the way of friendster? While I’m still a members of all 3 sites and MySpace is the site I and most others are primarily using, it seems as if some of the features which made MySpace so much friendlier and more desirable than friendster, and which basically led to a mass exodus from friendster are falling victim to the corporate behemoth of NewsCorp. Facebook’s clean, uncluttered interface seems to exude the exact opposite of NewsCorp’s ringtone offering, adpacked MySpace pages.

In an age where the user has over and over shown himself to be king MySpace’s moves like the blocking of the popular Photobucket application, which they later bought, are protectionist and profit centric. While MySpace delivers a purely pay to play stance, Facebook is keeping both advertisers and users happy through being more open to and actually inviting developers and advertisers to build applications relevant and useful to their users. This open environment full of non-invasive, seamlessly integrated, user appropriate content ensures not only viral spreading of such applications, but constant innovation in them, and by that constant relevance.

www.facebook.com
www.myspace.com
http://www.adweek.com/aw/magazine/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003593201

Transformers Marketing - Optimash Prime

Alright, besides obviously getting the idea from the picture, you can see why this is a must have. All I can say is how masterfully exploitative of Hasbro, combining 2 of our most loved childhood memories into an explosive nostalgia fest. They don’t stop there either, tugging on my camp sensitive heartstrings with the following amazing copy…

The wacky potato is up to his usual antics, this time disguised as the fearless AUTOBOTS leader! He and his faction of taters are battling the evil DECEPTICONS. Starchy situations call for a quick change – from truck to robot! No ordinary fries, these are POTATOES IN DISGUISE!

Mix and match all the pieces to create all sorts of wacky looks! Potato body comes with mix and match OPTIMASH PRIME and potato parts.

Remember, you don’t have to play with it. There is no reason anyone has to catch you sitting on the floor surrounded by Potato Head parts and PlayDoh sobbing about how you didn’t have toys to play with when you were little. On the other hand, there is no reason to keep it in a pristinely preserved box high up on a shelf a la The 40 Year Old Virgin. While I’m still trying to figure out the happy medium for its place in my life run out and get one and maybe you can give me a bit of advice about how it might best work for me.

Optimash Prime
http://www.hasbro.com/default.cfm?page=ps_results&product_id=19670