Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Stamping the Test of Time


The United States Postal Service has made a decision to abandon their condition that an individual must be deceased in order to appear on a stamp. So it's open season for all those great living stars and starlets, kind of. The USPS is taking suggestions via FaceBook, Twitter, and of course their own website. All of the information supplied up to this point is perfectly agreeable.

I found a poll on cbsnews.com [which they also tweeted] where they extended a virtual ear to the public to hear our thoughts on which national figure should be chosen. The candidates included people like Oprah, Steve Jobs, and Neil Armstrong - which you probably saw if you clicked the link - all of which i think are in line for a lion's share of recognition. The results of the poll however show the runaway leader as Lady Gaga with 76% of the votes, the current silver medalist is Bob Dylan with 8%. To bring this into a more concentrated focus, there are 19 people to choose from. This got me thinking about who voyages across the internet and whether polls like this are effective in identifying what Americans want.

It's paradoxical because it's hard to match similarities between Lady Gaga and stamp collectors/users. Much of the younger demographic uses stamps scarcely, and I'm operating off the premise that this is the demographic that thwarted Lady Gaga so far up this poll. I've seen two stamp club meetings in my life so I'll admit i lack a sufficient reserve to pull from, but each time every single participant was - or looked - older than the age of 40. Also when it comes to sending "snail mail" it appears a person's visits to the Post Office is almost a direct correlation with their age. So if you're the USPS, do you need to become relevant with a younger, well-traveled internet audience? Or do you need to find ways to actually reach the possible buyers who could benefit from this new opportunity?

I think this scenario expressly identifies the problem that faces so many long-standing businesses and organizations. Without gross adaptation and massive overhaul, the only way they can succeed [not survive] is if their patrons advance technologically and evolve their ways of operating and absorbing information. For instance if a newspaper has lost a significant chunk of it's subscriptions, they would suffer very little if all of those subscriptions started consuming the paper online; they would still have an advertising draw significant enough to sustain and grow the company. They would have the capital to attract and retain mavens in that field of work, and also expand with innovative practices.

This small adjustment by the USPS could turn out to be a pivotal move for them, I'm curious to see how it shakes out and what answers we can learn from them.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

The End of the World is Coming...


Unless you vote for me in the Karmaloop.com model contest. [Daily] For those unfamiliar the website is one of the largest online streetwear retailers. This is your opportunity to have me wearing all those shirts and pants in the men's section of Karmaloop. I've actually been a rep for them for quite some time.

Here is what you have to do:
You have to go this Facebook link and then it is going to ask you to like the "Karmaloop" page...which is okay, there is no harm in that. After that it will allow you to vote for me. Now here's the really important information....YOU CAN VOTE EVERY 24 HOURS. I know you don't want to remember that everyday, and that's why i'll remind you, either on Facebook or Twitter.

The process is pretty painless. But the point is this should be fun, AND WE HAVE TO BEAT THESE FOLKS FROM OTHER CITIES, and heaven forbid someone from Toronto win! We can't let the Drake effect happen twice!
uncle sam needs help

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

The Rook Brand



I try not to prognosticate success but, what a brand! Sometimes you can see what makes people special in less time than it takes to make rice, minute rice. I went into a trance the entire duration of the video and that's how i knew it was worth sharing. This is a video about the Rook Brand which is built by two gentleman, one of them, the artist Joe King, has worked with several brands that were already known to me although he wasn't. Some of the popular ones you may be able to reference include, Crooks and Castles, Billabong, Obey, and Freshjive. However the point of this post is i like the concentration of the brand, they take a lot of cues from subcultures and eclectic brands, that resonated with me because i consider my self to be - by nature - a subculture product with mainstream versatility, and i'm sure that would be ideal for their brand. To be able to have subculture respect usually indicates authenticity, keeping that while simultaneously influencing mainstream is so rare i would stop just short of calling it divine. Hopefully you can now better visualize what i saw when i watched this video, aside from the awesomely startling art and presentation.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Foreign Rehab


The abbreviation of Amy Winehouse's life enticed my usually dormant feelings to snake their way out of the basket. I'm hesitant to say, initially the news made "sense", but after fixing my ill-informed and conditioned reflexes it didn't make any sense at all. Amy's troubles took place in the tabloids as well as television, that's no secret. It however makes me wonder about the environment that some stars with opportunistic lives operate in. Now before i swan-dive into the Grand Canyon with this beautiful mind that i have, i would be remiss if i didn't mention that at this minute the cause of her death is unknown. This is going to be a twisting and winding piece so tarry with me as i am returning from an unintentional sabbatical.

Logic tells me that it should be reasonably difficult for a grammy winning songstress to commit destructive behavior on a consistent basis. For anyone unfamiliar with Amy Winehouse, she had a hard time overcoming some drug abuse issues that became known just as quickly as she did, around 2006 for many of us. To make this point simple [This alone may be my platform's undoing] I will say that humans generally consider drug abuse bad, generally care about each other, and particularly care about people that can make money. Winehouse had a camp -- any Grammy winning artist has a "camp" -- how was this group unable to keep her from a revolving door of rehab visits? We all understand that adults make their own decisions but stars tend to have less freedom and tend to have their lives more controlled than the rest of us. Now factor in family members who more than likely realized she was the cash cow of the family, how do you let that self-implode? I do not underestimate the power of addiction but her legacy wreaks of enablers.

I've read a little bit about the struggle of addiction with cigarette smokers, and it is well-understood that smokers tend to either have or have signs of depression, so often times it's equally as important to deal with the mental state of the person as it is to deal with the nicotine addiction. Here i'll put a little excerpt from the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1990, "In a study of 3,200 randomly selected adults, of those who had at some time in their lives been diagnosed with a major psychiatric disorder, 74% had smoked at some point, 14% had quit. Of those who had never been diagnosed with a psychiatric problem, 53% had smoked at some point in their life and 31% managed to quit... about 80% of alcoholics smoke... about 90% of schizophrenics smoke." With that information i extrapolated it to drug use [I could be wrong] and it leads me to the conclusion that Winehouse was troubled further than what we may know. However, with many resources it seems she would be able to get exceptional help, and that help would get to the root instead of continuing to trim the limbs. Again I am mystified.

Lastly I will say, is there anything that we can do as bystanders or fans? We know that celebrities have an effect on us but is there any way we can affect them? Maybe there isn't, but I think we all play a part. Do we make it comfortable for the drug culture to exist, or do we realistically help prevent what we can? Those are just questions to think about in case there is a way we can help.

The only thing left at this point is the epilogue. Amy Winehouse - loved to sing, but was sent to the wrong rehab.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Jake Davis: Motion Man



One of the more interesting video portraits i've been drawn to in a while. Some of his work has caught me, even while i was oblivious as to who was creating. Check out a little bit of explanation and background about Jake Davis and his work. This came from one of my favorite sites in the whole galaxy, a daily inspiration for me.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

My Top 5 Albums of 2010

I'm back with my 4th installment of my personal best albums for the year passed. Once again here are the rules:

1. The albums are selected from what i have personally heard
2. There is no need to argue because my opinion is what i deem to be the total after tax, it's nothing else to add.

This was a good year for music's sake, at least as far as I am concerned. Before I delve into the list i have to do the obligatory honorable mentions. J.Cole finished the year so strong with his Friday Night Lights mixtape [Correct, I count mixtapes as they are the new albums.] and followed up on the momentum his labelmate Wale's mixtape More About Nothing. I am utterly grateful for Kanye's GOOD Friday series, that's an album worth of material and it keep me musically fed all fourth quarter. And my last honorable mention is Kenneth Whalum III, simply phenomenal, see post below.


Drakeeeee

5. Drake - Thank Me Later
As amazing as i think this album is there is one deficiency, i didn't feel like he finished quite a few songs. He delivered one verse on many of the songs [See "Light Up", "Up All Night", "Unforgettable", "Miss Me"]. The one thing that i feel Drake does better than a lot of artists, he doesn't waste any words. All of his bars are hearty, very little cliche statments or metaphors/similies that don't really mean anything. The album is relatively personal and you feel like you get a grasp of his journey, even dating back before the music; tidbits that shaped Aubrey's well-rounded outlook on life which he fights to hold on to after his introduction to the fastest life he's ever seen. I would be remiss if i didn't mention the versatility of what he does, a major part of the reason he instantaneously strolled to the top; he sings with acceptable precision and is easily one of the better new rhyme-sayers. He's that rare.


KidCudiMOTM

4. Kid Cudi - Man On The Moon II
I hate to repeat myself so I'm going to try to highlight some points i possibly left out of my Cudi post late last year. Cudi does a LOT with his music, it's quite versatile. One of the things that i like about his album is that it's really an adventure. Artist development is very hard to find these days, but so is album development. Cudi's albums always feel like stories that you can follow and not just a collection of songs. When you can get in the booth and take people where you want them to go and not where they want to go, that's special. Also i had to give him credit -- which often eludes him from what i hear -- his songs tend to have quite a bit of a message, sans the ones where he goes on his "stoner" binge.

NasDMarleyDR

3. Nas & Damian Marley - Distant Relatives
I was mildly surprised at how mammoth this album was. Now when i say that, don't think for one second-hand on the watch that i didn't assume it was going to be good. I just had no way to predict it would be this good, considering i 'thought' i didn't understand Damian Marley. The island influence on this special delivered this to my heart. The synergy these two created was top-shelf, it makes Jay-z & R.Kelly look like 4th grade homework [I shouldn't have done that, as it was demeaning, but comparisons work wonders for perspective]. Frankly, it's hard to explain this album, which is another reason i used a comparison. Just trust me that it's great.

NothingBlog

2. N.E.R.D. - Nothing
This is the best #2 I've ever posted, it hurts me to even associate this with a silver medal. This album means so much to me and as contradictory as this sounds, it is my favorite album currently. The undertones of social commentary in the lyrics are sheer genius. I tell people this is my life manual [behind the Bible of course]. The music comes from left-field, yes even for N.E.R.D., but it works so well with your ears. I am convinced that Pharrell has a voice suited perfectly for music, it's magical and unclassifiable. The layers in N.E.R.D.'s music is so much more developed than what i usually hear these days.

kanye-west-my-beautiful-dark-twisted-fantasy-cover

1. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
This album is so complete it forced me to move my own favorite to #2. The first observation i had when i heard this is, there's at least two songs within every song. He creates so much mood and build in each song, nobody shifts the music like Kanye. Another amazing feat he conquered was turning a bunch of features into a positive and not a negative. Kanye is a symphony director that organizes the people with the sounds. He put 11 highly acclaimed artist, a few legendary, on the same song and it came out sounding amazing. He does the complete gamut when composing, and i had to give him his just due for just that. I wouldn't be surprised if he mixed the album himself. When i listen to this album i can't even go find another hip hop album to put in without it sounding simple, this simply dwarfs all of it's contempararies. The one thing i can always thank Kanye for is pushing the envelope. If you can stomach more of my superlatives about Kanye go back and read my previous post.