The Pretender, why it works

Here's the video for discussion Foo Fighter's "the Pretender" (I can't embed it on the page).

First: the guitar intro is a brighter upbeat version of Led Zeppelin's "stairway to heaven." Stairway is one of the all time highest requested songs ever. Can't go wrong there.

The rebel vs. the government. Not only is the video saying that he's not like one of the others, each member of the band is unique in their own way: hairstyle, clothing, instrument, while the cops are all in the same black body armor, with shields.

The red/white/and black color scheme. Made popular by the White Stripes, these colors have the most contrast to each other, and say if you're designing a business sign, red/white and black/white are the most noticeable colors to go with so you can't help but notice the video. The pure white ground gets covered in a red wash (the backdrop), possibly an allusion to violence.

The cops get hosed for once. They can dish it out, but can they take it?

Word of the day

Today, the word of the day is "nomenclature".

From dictionary.com:

"1. a set or system of names or terms, as those used in a particular science or art, by an individual or community, etc.
2. the names or terms comprising a set or system."

It was used in a daily conversation I had at work the other day in relation to a list of industry jargon at my current freelance gig. In a way, it's a list, which also makes me think of an article I saw on Yahoo about Peter Roget, the creator of the Thesaurus who dealt with life by creating lists. Being a fellow list writer I found it interesting that he used lists to create a world of words that he had absolute control over. It's also easier to deal with things when put into list form, putting it into black and white is a good way of helping you deal with it, whatever "it" may be.

IDW, Thank you

I went to the comic book shop the other day (because I needed some inspiration and I haven't been to one in ages). I was delighted to see a comic book for Joss Whedon's "Serenity: Better Days" by Dark Horse. After some investigation I was delighted to see that the story of the dark avenger "Angel" was going to be continued in comic book form and published by IDW publishing. So kudos to Joss Whedon and IDW to keep a great story line going on after the show's abrupt and tragic end back in 2004.

An album you owe yourself to own: Failure's, "Fantastic Planet"

Debuting in 1996, Failure's album "stuck on you" is one of those rock epics that totally flew under the radar. The single for the cd "stuck on you" is a great homage to the intros to early James Bond movies with the silhouettes of ladies dancing through the video. Why is this cd great? Punch rock beats, airy and crisp guitar, and the singer has a great presence throughout the album. My personal favorite song is a toss up between "Sgt. Politeness" and "Pitiful". Admittedly, this cd had a pretty good shelf time before I really immersed myself in it and gave it a chance. It was so unlike the stuff that I was into back then, deftones, Pantera, and Korn, that it took a couple of times to warm up to. Glad I did, it's definitely one of my top ten favorite albums.

Vintage 90's Rock: Republica

Arguably one of those bands that faded out as fast as they got big, Republica's "ready to go" was all over the media as soon as it hit the states: commercials, MTV reality shows, etc.  Check out the vid with that cheeky British singer of theirs, back when chicks all tried to look like they were asian for whatever reason.

Flavorpill Select

Here's a nice little art showcase put together by the people of Flavorpill, and sponsors Budweiser select.  Flavorpill's good stuff, they offer a free e-mail magazine that has news and reviews of art and happenings all over; Chicago, IL for instance, is the only I care about.

Hands down, the best Ozzy song and video...EVER

I don't ask much, I just want you.

A band from the early 2000's that you probably never heard of: Sunna

These guys were great.  A weird mix of electronica and rock that had a heavy grindy and somewhat industrial feel.  Almost like the British version of Filter.  There quite memorable video for the track "power struggle" is also quite bizarre:

Thier second and last video for "I'm not trading" has a great feel; the band is in a vast monochromatic white space, huddled together with their bizarre equipment in the corner, while camera effects warp and distort the picture:

Seeing from their wikipedia entry, not much is known of the current whereabouts. In any case the cd "one minute silence" is a great listen.

The amount of time and money corporate America wastes so we can all feel like beautiful and unique snowflakes, is well, a waste of money

That title pretty much encompasses this whole entry, but seriously, what a waste.  Granted we like as variety as people, but really, the variety we think we want because "it'll seperate us from the rest of the crowd" is just someone else telling us we need it so we're compelled to get it.  If you buy or get this; you will be happy.  That covers pretty much everthing we spend our money on: clothes, cars, etc (even some stuff we get for free).  It's someone else's dream that someone convinced us we need to be different.  That's capitalism.  However what I think is a total waste are bits of personal flair to things no one will necessarily ever see, especially on the web.

For instance: custumized landing pages for websites, specifically, an ad for "my yahoo" I saw that talked about the ability to change your "my yahoo" to reflect your own personal flair.  I'm not talking organization of information (which is often nice and relevant to most users), I'm talking adding "skins" to your homepage. So if you're a culinary artist, you like ponies, you're into death metal (or whatever you're into), apparently the customization is there can a whole new interface will greet you on your next login.  And I'm guessing that there's a gaggle of predesigned, professionally created templates, however, I'm guessing this "customization" will be in the hands of an amateur, giving them the potential to completely sabotage the purpose of the landing page.  Let's say this is you, and your color choice and graphics kill the readability of the landing page, what's the point of it then?  But I digress, I haven't actually tried the yahoo thingy, probably won't either because honestly, just logging into the bread and butter type login page is good enough for me, as it is for any other new sites.  I trust the designers at most ".coms" to display the content in a aesthically pleasing way  and also a way that leads to ease of readability.  If the site looks like a dog turd, well, I probably won't visit it again (until they redesign it).

Sometimes the Henry Ford philosophy of "you can have any color you like, so long as it's black" applies.  I mean that in the sense of more choices, chances, is just more time directing away from what you're actual purpose is; to check your e-mail, see what the news is, whatever.  I get the logic behind customization, to make the page more personable so you continue to visit the site.  But really, and sadly, it means more of you life wasted tweaking you stupid design and sitting in front of a computer, which I resent.

So my point is this: customization is rarely good, questionable, often bad and unneeded, and ultimately, a waste of money as well as your precious personal time.  Granted these profiles they have templated are most likely designed by professionals, but in the grand scheme of things, only one user is going to see it: you (that is if you decide to customize your landing page with the leopard skin background so you can be "unique").  I just shake at all the time and money wasted on template creation and the ability to add the "customizable" functionality skin to a landing page that arguably no one will ever see.  And isn't it about sharing it with all of you friends to show how slick and hip you are?  And are you really all that unique if you have a repeating low quality photo of Jack Sparrow in the background?  And what is going on in the world today?  Oh, you can't read it?  Stupid colors.  Let's give the designers the time and opportunity to create a better landing page from the get-go, then people wouldn't be compelled to change it, because if it ain't broke, they won't feel compelled to fix it.