hipster ex machina

Nike stealing Minor Threat cover art (they have since apologized) is just further evidence that I am the 'Target Market' or at least that my Indie-Yuppie peers are firmly embedded in the corporate machine. What's a girl to do now that bands she likes are featured in car ads and television shows?

I came across this thread on what might happen if corporations raided more album cover art via Soviet Panda. Here are some of my favorites.

I especially like these ones because they sabotage the whole point of the original art. I mean, can you imagine "Good Morning, Captain" happening on a cruise ship? I suppose you'd find quiet desperation there somewhere but it's not what you'd want to promote.

Advertising is definately changing. I don't know if the advertisers are so postmodern that they cannot remove self-referential irony from their work or if everything has just been done before.

Advertising has become so desperate that local businesses have begun delving into slogans that have bizarre cultural references like "Nothing but happy endings" and "The proof is in the purple." Did these advertisers consciously pick phrases that refer to illicit massages and the Donner party?

Is It Wrong to Quote Taxi Driver to Your Baby?

In looking over AFI's list of top 100 movie quotes I realized that one of the phrases I say to Boyo most often- "Are you talking to me? Are YOU talking to me?" is directly from Travis Bickle's mouth overlayed with my own motherly treacle.


Travis

Motopop and I have also adopted the seemingly benign "Shuggie" as a nickname for Boyo in his happy state. This also has dark roots- one of the many disturbing/wonderful segments of Wonder Showzen.


Shuggie?

I am hoping that the Brothers Grimm and the composers of Ring Around the Rosie didn't damage children too much since I can't quite stop entertaining myself by embedding the adult material I am used to into baby talk.

Being Your Own DJ

The beauty of online music is that you can act as your own DJ and find the music that suits you best. The drawback is that there is so much out there that you need kindred spirits to point you in the right direction. Although we have some excellent radio stations here, most notably Radio K and the Current, I still find that the music I download is an excellent tool for figuring out what I want to buy and who I want to see when they come through town.

I have also found myself making mixed CDs for my friends when I am inspired by events in their life. In the spirit of sharing great music and composing an interesting mix CD I entered the Summer Soundtrack contest on Salon.com and I thought I would share it with you.

It was inspired by many of our great Minneapolis bands and the increasing quality of Canadian exports.

Hot Summer Music from Cold Places

1. Death From Above 1979 - Blood on Our Hands - You're a Woman, I'm a Machine
From Toronto

2. Sahara Hotnights- Alright Alright (Here's my Fist Where's the Fight?) - Jennie Bomb
From Sweden

3. Arcade Fire - Neighborhood #3 (Power Out) - Funeral
From Montreal

4. Walker Kong - Battleship of Thieves - There Goes the Sun
From Minneapolis

5. Hot Hot Heat - Goodnight Goodnight - Elevator
From Vancouver

5. Metric - Combat Baby - Old World Underground, Where Are You Now
Originally from Canada

6. The Soviettes - #1 Is Number Two - LP II
From Minneapolis

7. Stars - Ageless Beauty - Set Yourself On Fire
From Canada

8. Atmosphere - Trying To Find A Balance - Seven's Travels
From Minneapolis

9. Dosh - Naoise - Naoise
From Minneapolis

10. Valet - Tony Harnes & Johnny Ave VS. Elvis Presley - Life on the Installment Plan
From Minneapolis

11. Pony Up! - Shut Up and Kiss Me - S/T
From Montreal

Cage Match: Tom Cruise vs. Kansas City School Board

Now that I'm a spiritual person following FSM teachings, other religions are starting to look a little strange. I woke up to Tom Cruise on the Today Show and listened to a bizarre debate between him and Matt Lauer over whether Ritalin works for anyone at all. I am so glad that Tom Cruise has such in depth knowledge of the biochemistry of the human brain. That E-Meter must be a lot more enlightening than the 8 years of intensive medical training that those psychiatrists go through.

Learn more about the Secrets of Scientology and how to audit an aphid using an E-Meter. Since the E-Meter is "about the only electronic gadget that is also an official religious artifact" Gizmodo had created the one and only edition of Religious Gadget Thursdays in its honor.

I Knew Pirates Were Involved!

Finally a religion I can get down with. If I'd only known about the 10 million underground worshipers of the Flying Spaghetti Monster earlier! We definately want the Kansas City School Board to require the FSM creation story be taught along with Intelligent Design and Evolution:

Open Letter to the Kansas City School Board

I think Motopop is converted as well since this religion contains so many of his favorite things: a midget, pirates, spaghetti. . . Maybe he will even get a chance to be Pope since the Catholic Church completely snubbed him in the last round.

I especially like this chart that explains how global warming has increased as the number of pirates have declined:


Arrgh, it's hot out here!

Liquid and Love

Happy Summer Solstice!

Drove into work along the mighty Mississippi swollen with the rainwaters from greenskied storms. The sun was celebrating the longest day of the year and Sleater Kinney was playing on the stereo. I thought about this quote from the blog section of their website:

It was the heat we always try to get to, the hot core where everything disintegrates into liquid and love and then when it's over it's like the whole structure has been reshaped and it's hard to remember what it looked like before.

I thought this type of transformative punk rock was in the realm of teenagers but it also fits with being a new mom. I feel reshaped and I am forgetting what a world without Boyo was like.

You Gotta Love a Good Manifesto

I have wished to have a manifesto of my own ever since an acquaintance grew a Grizzly Adams beard, dropped off the grid, and spent a year writing his manifesto. Unfortunately people like Stalin and the Unibomber have given manifestos a bad name.

Maybe topics like crafts and urban renewal will bring the manifesto back into vogue:

Craft Manifesto

Heavy Trash Manifesto

New Records

I bought three new records yesterday:

The Soviettes- LP II
The Decemberists- Picaresque
Sleater Kinney- The Woods

Sleater Kinney was in town this week. Just one of several great shows I did not attend. Also missed Spoon and Stephen Malkmus. So many other things distracting me from the Rock and Roll Lifestyle- friends from out of town, 4 month old baby... I guess I can't complain because those are wonderful things to be distracted by and I can still buy the records.

Chookooloonks: The Shop

Check out Chookooloonks' new shop. You can get beautiful photos of Trinidad on stuff and the proceeds go to support increasing adoptions from the foster care system.

Chookooloonks: The Shop

Prison Rodeo

I knew as soon as I started this blog I would find something incredibly bizarre to share with all of my phantom readers. It looks as if Louisiana is on the cutting edge of prison marketing with their Angola Prison Rodeo. I found this on Sprol, a planetary sightseeing blog of some of the worst places in the world. They also have some excellent commentary on the harsh conditions that contrast with this popular event that takes place in a 10,000 seat stadium each Sunday in October.

I guess if we're going to keep filling up prisons instead of finding ways to integrate people back into society all prisons are going to have to turn into entertainment complexes to get by.

The Pump House

I am starting this blog so that I can share all the web detritus I run into while I am pumping to feed my baby boy. Here is a picture of how I feel three times a day:


The pump station