Bad News, Bears

The '90s might be alive and well in Portlandia, but they aren't in this video. I was hoping for Sleater Kinney redux.

What a Doll

Girls is a new series on HBO set to premiere soon, created by Lena Dunham. Dunham also wrote, directed, and starred in the film Tiny Furniture, a raw look at the fuzzy space-time continuum during your early '20s. Her mother, featured in the film, is a well-known New York artist, Laurie Simmons. Simmons incorporates dolls into realistic scenarios, blurring the line between reality and surrealism, all that artspeak jazz. I've always wondered how children of artists like this turn out. Well enough, there's your answer.

Below is a series by Simmons from the '80s, "Fake Fashion".

East Asian Invasion!

Loving there's a new East Asian comedian/actor on the scene, there needs to be more!

Kumail Nanjiani (also the annoying cell phone sales guy on Portlandia):

Awesome Apps: The Cinemagram Effect

The occasional banner ad has been popping up in cyberspace with what I'd like to refer to as a "Cinemagram effect". Although, word on the street there is another app out now, Flixel, which does the same thing as Cinemagram, only more efficiently. If you have never tried Cinemagram or Flixel, please proceed to do so now.

What I find really cool is the intersection between print and video that can happen to create an interactive experience for the user.

A great example of this is  by Bon Magazine online for a fashion editorial layout on Yohji Yamamoto, to an illuminating effect.

Outdoor Advertising: The Right Font is Worth a Lot More Than a Grand

What is with the font on this billboard, for the Eddie Murphy film, A Thousand Words? When I glanced at it, while driving in L.A., at first I thought it was for somewhere you get salads or healthy groceries.

Although, the title for this film is not much to speak of, either. Is it possible its short for the ol' saying A picture is worth a thousand words? Resort to cliches, Hollywood, rings a bell in the social consciousness every time.

Theodolite: Then and Now

1984?

I find this photo of a factory in China that produces Apple products weirdly 1984, although not in the way Steve Jobs intended.

As mentioned Sunday on This American Life, (Note:  Disclaimer on the truth of that story) Apple does make available on its website a report that includes a section referred to as "Supplier Responsibility", yet failing to mention which suppliers Apple utilizes in the making of its products. Without transparency in allowing for a 3rd-party independent investigation into their suppliers, what is the authenticity of this document?

Excerpt from report:

Apple’s procurement decisions take into account a facility’s social responsibility performance, along with factors such as quality, cost, and timely delivery. When social responsibility performance consistently fails to meet Apple expectations, we terminate business. 


So is this true? 


Maybe Orwell was referring to the increasing necessity for corporate responsibility in 1984, rather than banality of design. Good design also means ethical business practices. Unethical manufacturing practices abroad overrides American innovation, pure and simple. With a recent fire at one of Apple's plants in China, it's disappointing this invention in particular is deservant of better public scrutiny.