We Made a Blog

Hellooooo free world.  Ladies and gentlement, I wanted my first post to encomposs two things I love, good music and porn.  Video for ‘The Moneymaker’ by Rilo Kiley.

» Photo Manipulation of the Week | No5

It’s the underground, get it.

Advertising Agency: Prolam Y&R, Santiago, Chili

The Black Keys’ rootsy rock has been coming up from the underground for a few years now. Last year’s Danger Mouse-produced “Attack & Release” has been garnering some steady, if not widespread, airplay. They’ve now followed that up with “BlakRoc,” a collaboration with one of their latest fans, Damon Dash. Drafting Mos Def, Jim Jones, Ludacris, Billy Danze, Nicole Wray, Pharoahe Monch, Q-Tip, Raekwon, RZA and, by the miracle of technology, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, it gets rap-rock right.

New York has an issue. It thinks it’s the best. The issue is that it’s hard to prove this wrong and so when you’re from NY you compare the cities you visit to the one you know best. And, without fault, NY maintains its lofty position as best. Its not to say we, at least I, aren’t open minded, I do travel, I do look for the personality and hidden treats that make a city special.

Unfortunately, the cities that have a hold on me are not part of this continent. Rio, New Zealand (yea the whole country), Tokyo, London. These are my kinds of cities. A sense of grandeur with enticing paths that take a visitor on a trip through the varying psyches of the city.

Let me reiterate. There is no city in America that touches New York. Las Vegas, Miami and San Diego are impressive but none offer the depth of personality New York has. Boston, with or without the imposingingly negative fact that the Red Sox hail from here, is an anti-septic wasteland of waspy, uninteresting people. So whats left?

Philly. It embodies much of what I love about my hometown. Colorful people, music venues big and famous or small and indiscreet, shops, parks, decent bars, ‘walkability,’ and the infamous depth of personality.

In 24 hours I:

• Had 4 of the best cheesesteaks I ever had
• Went to a real-life speak easy
• Saw 20 police cars converge at a single point, then take turns slamming the suspect’s head into a car
• Purchased a dope Nike jacket from Ubiq, sick store. On par with ALIFE, possibly better than Dave’s Quality Meats.
• Walked across the entire city
• Saw a ridiculously cool, permanent art exhibit made of garbage then twisted into an emmersive maze
• Noticed Philly girls have, on average, larger breasts than New York gals. (Just an observation)
• Realized Philly heads in general are actually very nice. I don’t know what happens when they become sports fans that causes them to turn into werewolves, because they were all really kind. Even when people asked about my Yankee hat, they were only concerned with the idea that I might be from Philly and a Yankee fan. Pretty cool.
• Met up with old friends, was left in a city by our old friend, renewed old-friendships that helped us show the underbelly of the city.

Oh and if you tell someone from Philly you ate at Geno’s be prepared to be called a child-molester.

This commercial may have been done entirely in After Effects. I mean the original After Effects 1.0. Simple visual tricks combine with story-boarding to show the depth of the Honda brand.

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, London

Walter Schreifels is the man. Responsible for Gorilla Biscuits and Quicksand, he went on to create Rival Schools proving he still handles the biz better than anyone. Now in what I will call the twilight of his career he has formed a cover band with old friends like Arthur from Civ and GB, Andy Action on drums and Dave Hill on guitar.

They played in the bomb shelter-like basement of The Charleston in Wiliamsburg last night. It was an intimate setting for the intimate show Walter puts on. Like an actor on “Inside the Actors Studio” being asked to relive all of his characters, Walter played many of his own oldies as well as the oldies of others. With the exception of the Quicksand songs, he put his own special spin on greats like Sick Of It All’s “We Don’t Need Friends Like You.”

By slowing down the music, Mr. Koller’s lyrics come to the forefront. Instead of paying attention to fists flying at your face and the intensity of the music, you get to reflect on what these hardcore kids were talking about. How prescient the message still is reminds you that you were part of something special. We weren’t into it just because of the sound, it really was the message too.

And when he blended Sick Of It All into the Smiths, he showed a mastery of music that made the entire crowd extremely happy with the $8 they’d shelled out. In fact there were free Jameson drinks if you asked for them, so good job to whoever pulled this all together.