Monday, December 6, 2010

HIPSTER RUNOFF

HIPSTER RUNOFF

Formerly alt magazine VICE has some new show for tweens on MTV

Posted: 06 Dec 2010 02:23 PM PST


From what I understand VICE MAGAZINE is some sort of website, magazine, blog, lifestyle brand, porn company, and place that employs tons of alt ppl who are crazy abt alt cultures from around the world. I am pretty young so I don't rlly know what the big deal with their brand is, but I know a lot of cool dads think it is 'really alt', like maybe they 'just barely' beat blogs to 'covering trendy crap with a unique perspective' or something, but that's chill.

Anyways, they have some new show on MTV called THE VICE GUIDE TO EVERYTHING. It seems like Vice is great at creating 'sponsored content' which is the new core of their business model, so it seems natural that they would make a TV show or something. Just not sure abt the target market. Feel like this is supposed to appeal to 'JACKASS'/'World of Jenks'/'Buried Life' type of programming, but rlly not sure how 'interesting' it is.

Honestly feel like MTV viewers would rather watch

16 and preggers

The Real World Road Rules Challenge

Jersey Shores

Does n e 1 know if VICE is 'relevant'?
Who watches MTV? Tweens? Do u think they will identify with the VICE brand?
Do u read 'The Vice Guide to _____'/'Dos and Do Nots'?

Should VICE find another channel 2 showcase their zany lil 'I went to the Third World and it is so effed up but at the same time America is so effed up 2 yall' ?
Do tweens care about cool dads going to non-Western parts of the world?
Do u think MTVtweens will identify with these VICE ASS cool dads?
Is Sixtween and Pregnant the greatest show ever created?

Should all of the actresses on 16 and pregnant 'get Oscars' for their performances?

Neon Indian has some new video but still doesn't have a new song/album

Posted: 06 Dec 2010 11:44 AM PST

This is the new video for the Neon Indian song "Mind, Drips" from the hit 2k9 album Psychic Chasms. I think this is like the second or third 'artsy fartsy' video that Neon Indian released, so it is just pretty 'whatever.' Wonder if the next Neon Indian album is going to 'pull a Beach House' and release a special edition DVD with the album. Maybe it is an effective strategy to get 'album of the year' from Gorilla Vs Bear.

Anyways, think this video is chill, but any time I see an alt girl who is being all artsy. I don't really focus on the song/the 'art' of the video, but instead I focus on the altbaguette. What is she all abt? Does she want a career as an 'it girl'? Does she have a sexi backbone? Do I have a chance 2 start a buzzband then convince her to get naked in my video?

Feel kinda sad hearing this song, in a bittersweet kinda way. Sorta just reminds me that 2k9 'killed it' but now 2k10 sux, but we are a month away from 2k11, so that is all like 'yay.'

R u 'inspired' by the technology used in this video? [via p4k]

According to the IFC website, which debuted the video, the clip uses a new device called the LZX Visionary, "an analog video synthesizer that manipulates images in the same way an audio synthesizer does for sound."

Is this video 'great'?
Is this video 'pointless'?
do u just want new buzzworthy mp3s?
R u excited abt 2k11 so Neon Indian, Washed Out and Toro Y Moi will all go 'head2head'?
R u excited abt the #chillwave_wars?

"Chillwave will live 4evr...
Chillwave never was..."
-a wise man

NYTimes writes trend piece abt how effing hipsters use laptops in coffee shops

Posted: 06 Dec 2010 10:12 AM PST

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/05/nyregion/05laptop.html?_r=1&ref=general&src=me&pagewanted=all#


From what I understand, ppl like to go to coffee shops, open up their Macbooks, then 'pretend to work.' They 'take over' an alt coffee shop that isn't Starbucks, then become 'regulars' and just go 2 prove that they 'srsly have their own small business/freelancing job' that requires 'intense focus.' Really feel like every1 should work in an office just so they feel 'repressed by society' and work harder/feel like slaves.

Anyways, some NYTimes writer did some 'trend piece' abt how ppl go to coffee shops to drink coffee and 'work' on the internet. Trying to really deconstruct the concept of 'The_Office' and how young ppl need creative, energetic zones 2 evolve in2 a modern entrepreneurial vibe.

On a day when the cafe Internet connection had already been down for four hours, and the toilet had been blocked for even longer, I thought I had seen these worker bees pushed to their limit. But I had underestimated them. Nothing could stir these people. They were not in New York; they were citizens of Laptopistan.

For some reason the author of this article created a fictional world called LAPTOPISTAN 2 describe life inside of this coffee shop. Feels like this is some sort of high school journalistic tactic or something. Really took it to the next level acting like he was on a safari/expedition:

I was an interloper among them, an anthropologist of sorts, sent to untangle their odd society, to understand their mores and unwritten rules. How did the natives interact? How did the government function? What was the economy like in this land of bottomless cups and table hoggers? And what, oh what, were they all writing?

I was, admittedly, a profoundly skeptical observer. Though I had been a freelance writer for the last eight years, I had always worked at home, clad in pajamas and brewing my own fuel rather than paying $3 for someone to make pretty designs in my caffeinated foam. Whenever my wife suggested that I get out of the house, maybe take my laptop to a cafe, I shot back: "Real freelancers don't work in coffee shops. It's just unemployed hipsters and their unpublished novels, or screenplays, or Facebook stati."


Here is some 'poetic' chunk where they say 'ppl were staring in2 their Macbook screens yall!'

Laptops had colonized every flat surface. No one uttered a word; people just stared into screens, expressionless. It felt like that moment in a horror movie when the innocent couple stumbles into a house filled with hibernating zombies, and they listen, in terror, as the floorboard creaks.

Really wonder if this person really 'sees the world' like this or if they are just 'pretending 2' 4 the sake of 'writing a beautiful article abt the state of the modern world.'

Wonder if I can open up a coffee shop called LAPTOPISTAN and transform it in2 a perfect microsociety/money-making scheme.

Here is another 'trying 2 hard' paragraph where the journalistbro talks abt how it is s000 hard to get thru the 'jungle of power cables'.

Entering Laptopistan is a task in itself. The floor presents an obstacle course of power cables snaking their way around coffee cups, over chairs, and around table legs, eventually finding a home in one of two power strips that look as though they came from a Soviet coal refinery. Whenever a plug is inserted, the outlet sparks, and certain movements can cause all the plugs on a given strip to simultaneously eject.


Glad I have a Macbook instead of a lame ass PC:

A quick glance around shows I have brought my laptop, a month-old MacBook Pro, to its nesting ground. Diversity here means the odd white MacBook or old black PowerBook scattered amid the silver MacBook Pros. Throughout the week I will see only a handful of PCs, each looking sadly out of place, like they have arrived at a black-tie affair in a corduroy blazer.

Here are just a few more dumb sentences that say LAPTOPISTAN:

Laptopistan's is an entrepreneurial economy, driven by solitary thinkers.

LAPTOPISTAN

My long-held notion that Laptopistan's citizens were just sitting around e-mailing other writers in other cafes around the world dissipated as I got to know the MacBook Pro owners around me. Sure, there were aspiring screenwriters, novelists and people updating Twitter...


LAPTONIA

Laptopistan provides structure, and freelancers, like children, secretly crave structure. You come to work, for two or four or eight hours, and you take comfort in the knowledge that everyone else is there to work as well. There's a silent social pressure to it all.

LAPTOPPED STATES OF LAPTOPICA

LAPTOPBROS

MOST Laptopistanis — Laptopistanites? Laptopistanians? — at Atlas are in their 20s, 30s or early 40s, split evenly between men and women. The dress is casual, with both sexes wearing T-shirts, sweaters and jeans, though a few women seem dressed for "work" with button-down blouses, blazers, even a dress or two. Most Laptopistanis work alone, though occasionally I spotted a group collaborating at a corner table. Socially, Laptopistan is a conservative society; outward displays of emotion are frowned upon. Most people hide behind their screens.

Really want to learn what it is like 2 go 2 work in a coffee shop every day instead of in an office. Wish I could be a creative entrepreneur and 'make my own schedule.'

The article closes by saying that LAPTOPISTAN created a perfect society because the journalist bro 'watched some other dude's laptop when he got up 2 take a piss':

After an hour or so, the guy next to me got up to go to the washroom, turned toward his laptop and looked at me.

With a nod, I completed the transaction. When he walked away, I smiled. It was not a big smile; most likely it was barely visible to anyone looking beyond my screen. Precisely the secret smile that citizens of Laptopistan allow themselves when no one's looking.


Sorta want to move to Laptopistan.
Do u think 'ppl working in coffee shops' is a relevant trend?
Are ppl who claim to 'work' in coffee shops 'full of shit'?
Do ppl in coffee shops need 2 'shut the eff up' so that I can focus on facebook/twitter?
Is this the opposite of a 'hipster bashing' article, like some sort of 'hipster justice' piece where they 'correct' stereotypes?
Do u work on ur laptop 2 do rlly important stuff?
Is Laptopistan 'the perfect' society?

Google tried 2 buy Groupon for $6 billion to try to hoard all of their 'sweet deals'

Posted: 06 Dec 2010 09:04 AM PST

Link: http://mashable.com/2010/12/03/groupon-google-no/


GROUPON is some email list that gives away 'sweet ass local deals' right in your inbox. Apparently it is a 'really important company' that 'makes mad bank', I guess because people like 2 feel like they have 'consumer power' by using coupons. Anyways, GROUPON apparently is the future of 'local business on the internet' so Google was all like 'Hey can we buy ur a$$ for $6 billion dollars? Can u throw in a few coupons 4 us too?'

The group-buying giant has been the center of the tech world this week after it was reported that Google had offered it $5.3 billion with a $700 million earnout. According to Chicago Breaking Business and Bloomberg, Groupon has decided that it is better off on its own.

But Groupon was all like 'hell no, we make $2 billion per year bitches! Yall better step it up if u want these nuts bc there's only more middle class ppl out there who want more sweet ass coupons.'

Still, there may be a reason why Groupon rejected this offer. According to AllThingsD, Groupon generates $2 billion in yearly revenue, not the $500 million figure that has been widely reported.

Wish I had invented a site that gave away local coupons.

Feel like I would never sell 2 yahoo, Microsoft, or any1 other than Google or Apple just to make sure that my brand was 'kewl':

Earlier this year, Yahoo tried to snag the group-buying company, but failed. Google, with its $30+ billion cash reserve, reportedly then offered Groupon $3 billion to $4 billion. However, it was rebuffed, so the tech giant upped its offer.

Really don't know why Google wants to buy Groupon. I guess they just want to hoard all of the sweet local deals 2 themselves, maybe as some sort of 'Christmas Gift' to their employees.

There are many reasons to think that Google would be overpaying to get its hands on Groupon. Any company whose value rises by $20 million per day risks a flameout at the level of Pets.com. $6 billion is a stretch almost any way you slice it.

Still, Groupon has an asset that Google covets so highly that it's willing to pay billions: local advertisers. Through its massive sales team, Groupon has built an impressive array of relationships with thousands of restaurants, spas and local businesses in hundreds of metropolitan areas. It's a market that Foursquare, Facebook and Yelp all target, but none of them has figured out the formula like Groupon.

The group-buying website's value isn't in its technology — the flood of Groupon clones proves that — but in its unparalleled distribution. Few other companies have the attention of local businesses that Groupon commands. And few have the expertise to turn that attention into a steady and consistent firehose of cash

.

Do u use GROUPON?
Do u wish u had started GROUPON?
Is GROUPON more important/innovative/able 2 make money than twitter?
Have u used GROUPON 2 acquire some sweet deals?
Do u wish u could buy GROUPON just 2 keep all the sweet deals 2 urself?
Is 'local business' the future of the internet?
Do u wish u started a relevant company that was worth more than $1 billion?
Would u sell just to make 'mad bank'?
Should Google purchase 'kewl music blogs' just to control the 'indie music markets'?

Lance Armstrong tries 2 be alt by tweeting abt the Arcade Fire, Phoenix, and the XX

Posted: 05 Dec 2010 07:46 PM PST


Lance Armstrong is a 7 time winner of the Tour De France, the most blggbl bicycle Race in the world. A lot of ppl try to say he used steroids/doped or something, but they don't realize that his American blood is just better than their vibes. In addition, Lance Armstrong is the face of the anti-cancer movement, inventing one of the most successful fashion trends in the world--the LIVESTRONG bracelet.

It seems like he is rlly into indiebuzzbands. That's chill with me. Sorta just wanna find a cure 2 cancer so no1 ever has 2 die again . Know it is kinda Gen Y of me, but honestly believe I am going 2 live forever.

Have u heard of the XX?

Have u heard of the Phoenixes?

Feel kinda bad that he went for 2 years without vibing 2 that Phoenix album.

Is THE SUBURBS the 'album of the year'? Or does he need to get way 'deeper' into indie music 2 understand what is truly relevant and what is mainstream indie?

Are LIVESTRONG bracelets 'mad alt'?

Is Lance Armstrong a chill bro?
Do u feel 'threatened' when famous ppl get into indie music then tell their millions of followers abt 'underground buzzbands'?
Did u ever wear a LIVESTRONG bracelet?
Is Lance Armstrong 'clean'?
Did Lance Armstrong use the power of indie MP3s to become the greatest cyclist of all time?
Is cycling the most alt sport?
Do u want to live in a world where buzzworthy indie mp3s can cure cancer?
Is Alberto Contador a 'lamestreamer'?