Monday, March 8, 2010

HIPSTER RUNOFF

HIPSTER RUNOFF

Will hand warming sleeves replace the mitten / glove by Winter of 2k12?

Posted: 08 Mar 2010 02:37 PM PST

Photo by the sartorialist


It seems like this has been the coldest winter ever, probably due to global warming. I feel like sometimes gloves / mittens / Zissou hats / pea coats / hoodies aren’t always enough to keep u warm. As the Earth continues to grow colder, we will need to evolve and find functionally designed apparel that will legitimately keep us warm.

The handwarming sleeve is a perfectly designed tube meant to use your own body heat to keep you warm. The zone inside of the tube is a therapeutic sauna which can provide ur hands with the warmth they need to keep your fingers from turning to ice and breaking off ur hand / arm.

It perfectly insulates ur hands, and cultivates ur own warmth to keep u warm. Sometimes, life will require you to momentarily utilize the touch of ur hands / finger tips to accomplish tasks in cold weather.

Seems like even hunting bros who kill animals have utilized this technology.

I think that the handwarming sleeve brings the aesthetic of the fanny pack, but has more legitimate functionality.

Sorta also reminds me of ppl who keep their hands in the pockets of their hoodies in order to look humble / stay warm.

Can’t believe NFL Quarterbacks have been into this hand warming trend for 20-30 years. Maybe is an innovator / thought leader on the field, and as a fashionista.

Quarterbacks require maximum hand warmth, even in cold climates. They must have a soft touch on the ball in order to throw tight spirals to their receivers. This may or may not be a metaphor 4 life.

Rlly need to order a hand warming sleeve from a sporting goods store / alternative retailer.

Free ur hands 2 do great things. The soft touch of ur fingertips will guide u 2 do great things.

Are handwarming sleeves the future of alt winter fashion?
Have u ever needed the touch of ur finger tips during the winter to finish some sort of outdoor installation / art project?
Are gloves / mittens ‘mainstream’?
R u ready 4 summer?

Urban Outfitters will launch wedding brand by 2011

Posted: 08 Mar 2010 01:14 PM PST

Link 1: http://www.philebrity.com/2010/03/08/urban-outfitters-new-bridal-line-too-cool-for-your-bridesmaids-but-perfect-for-you/
Link 2: http://www.ldnews.com/news/ci_14519308


In order to tap into emerging markets of consumer alts who are growing up and getting married, Urban Outfitters plans to launch a wedding + bridal brand by Valentine’s Day 2k11. Feels like alternative people all over the world are growing older, and we are watching brands evolve to meet the growing/changing needs of their customers. Worried. Like people won’t be able to wear form fitting v-necks and skinny jeans 4evr.

Can’t believe Urby Outty is such a mega company that makes ‘billions of dollars’ off the consumer alt aesthetic. Apparently they made $1.9 billion in sales and $220 million in profit in 2009. Seems like a lucrative industry:

Retailer Urban Outfitters is planning to launch a wedding brand after posting a record profit in 2009.

Officials at Urban Outfitters Inc. said during a conference call Thursday that the company will open a new bridal business in time for Valentine’s Day 2011.

Chief Executive Officer Glen Senk says the brand will focus on gowns, accessories, decor and gifts.

Senk says the Philadelphia-based company’s Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie stores frequently sell to brides and bridal parties, so a foray into the wedding industry makes sense. The new brand is yet to be named.

Company research indicates the average wedding costs about $45,000 and brides spend $4,500 on clothing and accessories.

R u gonna spend ‘a shitload of money’ on ur wedding?

Is Urban Outfitters an authentic place to shop, or is it a place for tweens trying 2 be alt?

Do yall want to marry a girl who wants a wedding dress from Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, a boutique designer, or a mainstream high end department store?

Will American Apparel go after the ‘Generation Y growing up and getting married’ demographic by releasing a minimal bro wedding tuxedo, or will they continue to focus on t-shirts / leggings / underwear?

What kind of wedding dress represents ur personal brand?

Will Urban Outfitters wedding dresses be ‘fashionable’ or will they be made from cheap materials/fall apart?

Pitchfork gives a Reissued Pavement Compilation Album a 10.0

Posted: 08 Mar 2010 12:02 PM PST

Link: http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/14002-quarantine-the-past/


In an effort to educate new indie music fans about old indie music, Pitchfork has given the Pavement reissue of the hit album “Quarantine the Past” a 10.0. Pavement is going on a worldwide reunion tour, so it seems important that they have a product to sell with it. It seems like the review is sorta a mix of a history lesson + creamfest.

This compilation exists mainly to get an entry-level Pavement product on the market to coincide with their reunion tour, but it has a value beyond crass commercial necessity. Unlike other cross-generational legacy bands like the Pixies, Sonic Youth, and Talking Heads, Pavement’s songs fit together comfortably as a jukebox-friendly hit parade.

Wonder if newer buzzbands are ‘effing pissed off’ that this old band gets grandfathered in, even though they might not be able to make it in the modern internet music landscape. Wonder if 10.0 will ‘boost sales’ + introduce a new generation of fans 2 Pavement. Wonder if this is meant to ‘drive sales’ to Coachella / Pitchfork Music Festival.

Do u think albums that are reissued 10-20 years later will automatically be grandfathered into 10.0s?
Is Pavement as good as the Beatles?

Are indie bands sorta like wine: their albums taste better in 10-20 because you aren’t overwhelmed by the context of their release and just get to be nostalgic + idealize the past?

Will the Gin Blossoms reissue receive a 10.0?

Is Broken Social Scene the next Pavement?

Video: Washed Out LIVE + new backing band

Posted: 08 Mar 2010 07:27 AM PST


is beginning a new phase in his career. No longer is he just a ‘blog darling’ who produced some of the most relevant + critically acclaimed mp3 of 2k9. He is an indie artist who must fulfill his destiny–creating crossover hits + going on tour and inspiring crowds in relevant alt clubs + making mad bank/indie dollars. This is the beginning of his first ‘extended tour’, and it seems like he hired the band the Small Black to help him fill the room with sound as a ‘backing band.’

It seems like this tour is some sort of ‘beta’ test to prepare him for his ‘opening slot’ for Beach House in ~1 month. Sort of feel like people will enjoy more than Beach House, since Beach House’s stock has really ‘plummeted’ 2 weeks after their album release, and people will probably be more ‘intrigued’ by the evolving experience.

AKA Ernest Greene bro seems to have constructed some sort of massive ring of lights to serve as a visual aid to his music. This ring might play an important part in the visual evolution of his brand [via the Daft Punk Pyramid theory].

Does seem chill live?
Will win a Grammy within the next 5 years?
Is chill wave evolving / fitting in with ‘the mold’?
Do u buy into the live performance, or should he be more/less like Panda Bear?

Will u ‘make it out’ to the show when plays at ur local relevant venue?

VIDEO Footage & Critical Reaction to Animal Collective’s Guggenheim Art Show

Posted: 08 Mar 2010 06:06 AM PST

Link: http://www.self-titledmag.com/home/2010/03/05/1mm-if-there-was-ever-any-doubt-that-animal-collectives-our-grateful-dead-the-following-fan-photos-just-proved-us-all-wrong/


After Animal Collective’s art show at the Guggenheim, the Alt Report tracked ‘how it was covered’ by internet outlets. While most internet outlets have mastered how they will cover Animal Collective’s musical output for the next 10-20 years, just wanted to monitor the relevant alt/mainstream internet 2 see if any 1 would ‘pan’ the show, since so many twitterers called it ‘a huge waste of time and money.’

Just want 2 know what it was like 2 be there bc not every1 can live in NYC.
Not every1 can buy scalped art show tickets.
Not every1 can be the AnCo fan that they want to be.

It seems like the common themes were

  • face paint
  • it was mediocre
  • face paint
  • Nothing really ever happened
  • face paint
  • so many ppl there to experience an AnCo concert and drink absinthe
  • face paint
  • was the ultimate art school party for NYC college students
  • face paint

COVERAGE//////
///////// ANALYSIS
//////////////

Self Titled Mag provides the analysis that I feel most interested in:

One of the most striking things about last night's "Transverse Temporal Gyrus" performance had nothing to do with Danny Perez's depths-of-hell visuals or Animal Collective's patient, plodding performance piece. It was the fact that tons of college kids showed up to a major art museum with streaks of paint across their face, as if it was time to play Cowboys and Indians or something.

and

Begin what, you ask? How about hooting and hollering like a flock of wide-eyed owls, and treating the main floor the way it was intended—as a playground for art-damaged misfits.

"I came here thinking it'd be like the [videos I saw] of them before," said Samson, an Animal Collective fan who chose to see them for the first time…at an art exhibit. "So it kinda annoyed me at first, because I wanted to move—I wanted to dance around, you know? But now I'm a lot more into it, a lot more relaxed and going with the flow."

***********

Vanity Fair ‘pans’ it, says they are good at branding, but it left u wanting ‘more’:

Conceptually, it was a good—some might say brand-savvy—idea. Animal Collective has a purchase on both art-school students and upwardly mobile, liberal thirty-somethings. Curating a show in the same spiraling, six-floor space Matthew Barney once inhabited was the next logical step in their career. Call me naïve, but I expected the sort of brain-melting bass and vertiginous calliopes that drew me to the band with their 2005 release, Feels. There were crunches, drips, drops, and bass that were on the verge of flowering into a full-on freakout, but they never quite got there. The projections and syncopated lights weren't as visceral as they could have been. The Guggenheim's rotunda is one of the best rooms in New York, and I know I wasn't the only one clamoring for Animal Collective to come out and tear the roof off the place with some savagely swooning harmonies and ear-splitting bass.

***********

Rolling Stone attempts to describe it like it degenerated into some ‘wild party’ and no1 cared about ‘art’:

But once the absorbed the piece's ambient embrace and gloriously disorienting soundwork, the gallery quickly turned into a wild party. Two people snuck behind the couch-like mountain to cuddle, and soon, tons of spectators were climbing up it like a puffy jungle gym. Two guys in animal masks spazzed out wildly while other people just crashed on the floor; people joyously snarfed Pernod absinthe cocktails; one eager fan unsuccessfully tried to start "a Guggenheim wave" to corkscrew up the gallery; a thick puddle of barf was spotted in the unisex bathroom.

***********

NYMag called at an ‘excuse to socialize’:

Anything that involves taking over the Gugg and serving absinthe should be a good time, but we’re not sure we would’ve painted our faces (which some did) and paid 30 bucks (as most did) merely to bask in abstract projections and highly processed junglelike noises. Still, the photos — of which we have twelve — are something to see, and unlike most museum visits (or concerts, for that matter), this was a fine excuse to socialize.

*******

The Wall Street Journal basically said that nothing happened in a metaphorical way:

Midway through the performance, a translucent, jelly-bean shaped balloon fell from the top floor of the museum. Upon floating to the bottom, it was batted around for a while; closer examination revealed it to be an inflated condom. Maybe that was the most symbolic, or most absurd, comment of the night: an egg-shaped object falling through a womb, which turns out to be a prophylactic.

*********

The New York Times spent 5 paragraphs trying to describe what it sounded like:

The music was built from loops, many with old analog synthesizer sounds: deep throbs, bell-toned pings with their pitches bending, drones, chirps, static, and speedy burbles, all welling up and circling the space. There were also crashes, splashes, doomy altered voices, a quick Middle Eastern-tinged string-instrument phrase and bits of Gregorian chant.

The length of the repeated loops sometimes coalesced into something like a rhythm, but not one that lingered. At one point, about half an hour in, a nearly understandable voice sang something like a melody line a few times; it didn't reappear.

But everything else did, again and again, in shifting permutations until the bits became familiar. For the first hour, there was material aplenty, pulsating and whizzing and twinkling, materializing and melting away, dense and changeable phantoms drifting through the white space. By the halfway point, however, it wore thin: Those pings again? That string line? The conversations grew louder. The video was also scanty and repetitive; weren't there any vertiginous outtakes from "ODDSAC"?

But Animal Collective had saved a few things for the last hour: a richly consonant drone, different chanting, something distantly related to a twangy guitar and to a chord. The music drifted from spooky stimulation toward meditation and serenity, not as a narrative conclusion but as yet another way to experience the room. An encore of sorts was largely a reprise of each loop, like a credits sequence.

*****

Pitchfork said nothing critical/judgmental, just posted a photo gallery.

******

SPIN Magazine basically made fun of the people who went there with face paint looking for a ‘concert experience’:

The museum’s escorts were bombarded with questions. “I’ve been asked if anything’s going to happen about 200 times so far,” said one. “My answer: Nope. This is it. And I feel like this event advertised a little wrong. People are here for a concert and they’re certainly not getting one.

She’s right — the 19-year-olds with glow sticks and face paint were clearly looking for something a bit more…. festive.

******

Brooklyn Vegan called it ‘underwhelming’ but then said ‘Peggy Guggenheim would approve’:

The always challenging and ever-divisive band managed to confound plenty of their fans during the event, but to be fair, a large amount had probably never witnessed a sound installation before. And even as far as sound installations go, it was at times underwhelming. It was perhaps better served as less of a revelatory art piece and more of a completely unique and relaxing way to view and experience one of the most beautiful indoor spaces in all of New York City. Watching saturated colors shifting in tones illuminate the high glass ceiling of the Guggenheim was easily hypnotic.

///////
Do yall feel like u were there now?
Is the main point of going 2 ’shows’ 2 ‘people watch’?
Can n e 1 find a link to some sort of art world guru giving a legitimate critique of the performance instead of just ‘blog recaps’?
Do yall feel more alone & overwhelmed than ever when u end up in a room with a bunch of ppl with common interests?

Did AnCo ‘jump the shark’ and dilute their brand with this art show?
Do u wish u were there?
Have u ever worn face paint 2 an alt event?

Avatar wins Oscar for “Best Film” + List of Oscar Winners

Posted: 07 Mar 2010 09:22 PM PST


Best Meme: Ben Stiller

Complete List of Oscar Winners:
BEST PICTURE: ‘Avatar’ starring James Cameron

BEST DIRECTOR: Ben Stiller “Meet the Fockers”

BEST ACTRESS: Sandra Bullcock in “Speed”

BEST ACTOR: Zooey Deschanel in her relationship with Ben Gibbard

Best Foreign Language Film: “lost in translation” as translated by google.com/translate

Best Editing: A blog Editor

Best Documentary: Pitchfork: The Untold Story by a Bitter Music Blogger

Best Visual Effects: The album cover of “Merriweather Post Pavillion” by Animal Colletive

Best Score: Neon Indian – Psychic Chasms

Best Cinematography: Ryan Gosling’s sound project “Dead Man’s Bones”

Best Sound Mixing: The guy from SPOON, a lifetime achievement award

Best Sound Editing: Animal Collective “Merriweather Post-Pavillion”

Best Costume Design: Animal Collective “LIVE at the Guggenheim DVD”

Best Art Direction: Animal Collective “LIVE at the Guggenheim DVD”

Best TV Show: The Winter Olympics

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Kristen Stewart, “Twilight” * ( * = award was voted via internet voting poll.)

Best Makeup: The Knife

Best Animated Short – Animal Collective “My Girls”

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY – a movie about a war

Best Musician: Sheryl Crow – “All I wanna Do is Have Some Fun”

Best Dead Bro: (tie) John Hughes + Michael Jackson + Patrick Swayze

Best Song – The Arcade Fire “Where The Wild Things are (at the Super Bowl)

Best Animated Film – ODDSAC by Danny Perez

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR – Peter Saarsgard and Zach Braff in “Garden State”

Who was yalls fave Oscar winner? Who got shafted?

A cougar teacher engages in sexting, sends nude pix to her students

Posted: 07 Mar 2010 07:33 PM PST

Link: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-6270620-504083.html


A lot of grown ups have been on a social mission to let tweens and teens know that ’sexting is bad.’ By definition, sexting is ’sending hot pix of urself to some1 who wants to have sex with u.’ It is sorta like the most sexual thing u can do with a cell phone. Apparently, some high school teacher from New Hampshire named Melinda Dennehy sent nude pictures of herself to a student [via cell phone]. This is against the law, since he is a minor, even if he did have the skills/equipment to cultivate nudes from her

Do yall think this is a big deal, or is it chill that she believes ‘age is just a number’?

Police say the 41-year-old English teacher sent four sexy shots of herself to a 15-year-old male student at Londonderry High School. The student, it seems, thought that was pretty nifty. Police say he forwarded the images to his friends.

Does Melinda Dennehy seem like a good girl who is just a lil hornie?
If a man sent cock shots of his peen to a girl, would he be more of a ‘perv’?
Did yall ever get involved with ur teacher in high school/ college?
Is sexting just part of growing up in the modern world?
Should we encourage teens to sext instead of engaging
Was Mary Kay LeTorneau the first authentic teacher who ‘fell in love’ with one of her high school students?

Sorta wish i had a teacher who had fallen in love with me when I was 14, or at least a teacher who would have ‘tugged me off’….
Does love have an age?
Is age just a number?
Should tweens be given the same rights as grownups to sext?
Is this story only compelling because she’s a ‘cougar’?

Is the bro who got the nudes a ‘victim’ or one of the luckiest bros on the planet?