March 2009 Archives

The New York Times Has a Laugh

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This morning, I was reading a perfectly fascinating article in the Times about how Japanese and Korean dry cleaners in New York City have played out a political dispute in slogans printed on their plastic dry-cleaner bags. Apparently there's this island that both countries claim to own.

Anyway, I was proceeding through the article, enjoying it, when I came across the following sentence: "But the real action lies elsewhere. Protesters in South Korea have cut off their fingers, stabbed themselves and, in a particularly inventive move, burned large cardboard effigies of the Japanese Ministry of Education (to protest Japan's teaching of its version of the dispute)." I'm not sure whether the Times was trying to be sarcastic and clever, or whether they're making a genuine political point about the inventiveness of burning cardboard in South Korea. Either way, it made me smile, even while I questioned the journalistic apprpriateness of the remark...

Light-Up Sheep Art

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This is amazing. A bunch of crazy shepherds get their sheep to make pictures and and act out scenes. Included: Pong, fireworks, and the Mona Lisa. Wow!


Light-Up Sheep Art - Watch more Funny Videos

Enjoy!

Awesome Recent Commercials

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Three recent commercials have earned the distinction of "awesome." Among all the riff-raff of the Super Bowl, these were the clear winners:

Denny's/Nannerpus: The most adorable (and addicting) commercial in a long time. The song is catchy, the octo-banana is cute, and the whole thing is so low-budget cheesy and campy that I can't help but loop the video on YouTube about 30 times. The best part: It knocks its own eye off midway through the first line. The other best part: the fishing line controlling the "tentacles" is clearly visible. [see for yourself]

Gatorade/Holy G: Maybe just because I'm a sucker for Monte Python, and it's been a year or two since I watched Holy Grail, but I can't take my eyes off this one. A posse of sports stars embarks on a quest for the "Holy G," and they encounter (big surprise) most of the characters from the Monte Python movie. [see for yourself]

Pepsi/Bob Dylan & Will.i.am: Although I've professed my undying love for Coca-Cola over Pepsi (see my entry a few weeks ago), this commercial almost made me switch. Bobby D. is my big-time hero, and the creative juxtaposition of this ad is stunning. (They switch back and forth between the "old" and the "new.") I also like Will.i.am's remix of Forever Young, with just enough echo and jump to be classy. And the message of this piece, even though I don't like Pepsi, fits the song remarkably well. It's almost like Bobby didn't sell out... [see for yourself]

Noah Zaves, Fashion Impresario

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As it turns out, my fashion prestige is not limited to the color of my T-shirt. In fact, I've been setting trends for about three years. I know this because the leaders of the fashion world have followed in my footsteps a few years later.

The first trend I set upon arriving at college was the formal/informal contrast look. I wore standard dress pants, dress shirt, dress shoes and tie, and then layered it with a sweatshirt (matching the pants' color). That way, the shirt and tie make the outfit undoubtedly dressy, but the sweatshirt takes the edge off, and makes it look a little more comfortable. Also, the combination of tan sweatshirt/tan pants (or navy sweatshirt/navy pants) looks really good when contrasted with a shirt and tie of a different color.

Another trend I set, or at least anticipated, was the bright colors of my towels and washcloths. The summer before college, I mixed-and-matched a set of hot pink, turquoise, and lime green. For years, everybody was impressed by the bright colors, especially the pink, but then this fall K-mart,  Bed & Bath, and Target all featured similar lineups of colors, marketed especially for dorm rooms.

Of course, an alternative explanation is that the major fashion houses have been following me with a video camera. I saw a documentary once about how they don't actually invent trends. They just go undercover and see what the punk outcasts are wearing, because they know that their clothes will become popular in a year or two. So maybe, rather than calling myself a "fashion impresario," I should simply go by "visionary punk."