Time Magazine is Edgy.

Fairly intense TIME mag cover photo you'll see and hear described in this video. The accompanying headline: "What Happens If We Leave Afghanistan"; no question mark, a declarative. Point taken. Costly as it is, there is some obligation to "help out" over there. It's jerky to adopt an abused dog and, after a few years of it chewing up your New Balances and pissing on your carpet whenever you have guests, just take it back to the pound because you're tired of the extra expense.


Is it possible that the Iraq and Afghanistan wars will mark a turning point in our nation's history, possibly world history? What if the world's most powerful and exorbitantly funded military slowed its roll, took stock of an abject failure of strategy and its costs ($$$ and beyond). Vietnam was not an aberration. War sucks. So do Iraq and Afghanistan. Whose fault? "We didn't mistreat that dog, society did." But I bet there is a great way to get a mistreated dog to at least stop pissing and shitting on everything. I don't know what it is, but with enough time and money you could figure it out.

!!!!!!Segue!!!!!!!

On a related note, the US military and its HUGE R&D budget have been responsible for loads of technological innovation that has eventually reached the consumer market and allowed us all to stream porn on hand held devices. What if the US military kept most of the guns and robot fighter pilots, but allocated some loot to devising new methods of diplomacy and nation-building-military-intervention? How do you educate an impoverished citizenry, establish functional political stability, and keep women from having their noses and ears cut off? With enough (well spent) time and money they could figure it out.

Then we could take that know-how and apply it to our own increasingly flawed political and education systems. Believe it! Military spending could show us the way!!

Converse: Patron of the Arts

Another Converse sponsored musical threesome, only this time it maximizes appeal by exploiting enthusiasm for summer. I'm not against this at all.

Would it be better for the music industry to remain in this weird give and take between consumers and labels; relying on consumer spending to inform record execs who try to select for and engineer what they (execs) think consumers want? What if artists have more free reign because Brands can subsidize their careers in exchange for the occasional promotional cache?

This song is good. Keep your eyes dry.

Facebook movie, not in 3-d.

something to get me posting. How about this stuff huh?

As good as this looks, here's what I'd like to see: Zuckerberg as the avatar for every person who has invested faith in Facebook as a means of actualizing a better version of themselves. Cooler, more popular, better looking, more successful, having way more/better sex than their peers, and meeting tons more famous people in the process. Even if those famous people are asshole reality tv stars.

On Innovation

"I want our best minds to be able to make a killing from starting new companies rather than going to Wall Street and making a killing by betting against existing companies."

Find myself agreeing with Thomas Friedman lately.

Progress

The Creators Project is prolly the best web video product out there. Any surprise that Vice is behind it? It's a straight up "sponsored by" scenario where (I assume) Intel gives the keys to a creative team/emerging multi-media powerhouse for the early 21st century, develops a simple yet solid concept, and puts decent money behind it. It surpasses most everything out there for combined production value, storytelling, entertainment value, information value, and relevance to the world. Name me one better. Most importantly the goal of each piece is to mine for insight to new, fresh ideas in Arts & Media.


Not being dummies, they make an effort to fulfill the (rarely realized) potential of the 2010 internet by pairing each vid with written words, in this case an interview. Words and video on the same page, including a vital stats bio. Plus thumbnails of extra video content related to the featured video. And comments, which are never a bad idea. all good.

This is what the world is like

Nice piece about Damon Dash, his work/life/business philosophy, and how he's basically remaking himself as a Diddy meets Warhol type for the decentralized, indie community-entralled landscape of today.

“[Prisoners of wack world] have no other choice, there’s no other option,” he explains of P.O.W.s. “So people have to fit in where they can and just be mad, and that’s why people don’t work as hard, because they don’t enjoy what they do. They live for Fridays. You know what I’m saying? I hate Fridays. Sunday in here is just as packed as any day. Because, this shit, you enjoy it. You wouldn’t compromise it for the world.”

video of the whole thing unfolding at CreativeControl.tv

MTV Waah Waah (sound of comic failure or brilliant new revenue stream?)

Very much puzzled by this. On one hand it's great. But on the other, where's the rest of the song?



MTVU's Ahead of the Curve brings you the hot new shit that hip kids in the street are bugging out to! And they do so by making lovely, exclusive performances in picturesque settings; surely spending tens of thousands producing the thing, not to mention the man hours spent planning. Maybe the primary purpose is as a TV spot, fine. But MTV has this MTV360 ethos going which aims to put MTV in your face via every possible medium.

"Our users have televisions, computers and stereos in their rooms, often all on at the same time," says Sarah Cohen, Vice President of Programming and Production of MTV.com.

Cohen elaborates, "With the development of the 360 strategy, MTV.com has become a brand in its own right. As our strategy evolved, we developed MTV.com as an original programming destination rather than only thinking of it as an extension of promotions or marketing. This is true online programming – the television medium cannot by nature provide it. MTV.com qualities like community, interactivity, and broad, deep music access are now part of users’ and viewers’ expectations of the MTV brand as a whole."

So this Local Natives performance gets distributed online, but only 41 seconds of it. This is "deep music access"? "True online programming"? I assume they did not spend all that money just to shoot 41 seconds of the song.

Why not put the whole performance online? Why??? They have a whole site dedicated to these abbreviated performances with lots of great artists. I don't get it.




Is this a licensing issue? A sly way to get more unique views, more clicks, run more ads, make more ad money? Or is this a failure of brand strategy, kind of a waste of money, and frustrating to viewers all at once? Ahead of the Curve!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!