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Die Antwoord

February 27th, 2010 | Category: Afrikaans, Blog, Culture, Design, Humor, Inspiration, Music, Photo, Posts, The Arts, Youtube Filler, fashion

can’t see the video? click here.

“But Christos, I’ve already seen this video”. For those of you who haven’t; February 5th Friday night was Die Antwoord’s first gig since they exploded on computer screens around the planet. In the matter of a few days they went from being Waddy Jones and Yolandi Visser’s weird, barely understood Cape gangster hip hop project to a global pop phenomenon. There’s no arguing with over a million hits on Youtube. Die Antwoord’s cheesy rave beats, rof ska rhymes and zef so fresh has catapulted them to international fame, if not yet fortune. But it’s surely coming. And in retrospect it’s easy to see why. DJ Hi-Tek’s “next level beats” that Ninja frequently praises are essentially a post-ironic take on techno rave sounds. They seem to reference early 90s dance cheese like C+C Music Factory and Technotronic. It’s the same kind of electronic pop schlock that gets parties started from Warsaw to San Francisco – but the approach is a little sardonic.

Add to that Yolandi’s school girl sexuality, bowl cut fringe and trashy Afrikaans accented gutter mouth and you’ve got the ultimate hook. Then add a Ninja with Zef flows. Occupying the damaged persona of a bullied kid who grew up tough in the ghetto and came out on top. Riding his talent like a snake on those zef beats. “All up in here on the interwebs”. It’s an intoxicating mix. Say what you like about Waddy Jones but the man has presence, a eye magnet. He varies between being overly self-consciousness and then flips it with instinct. He’s a natural on the mic. It’s not a question of whether he believes in the persona. He is Ninja. Just like he says: “Ninja is poes cool, But don’t fuck with my game, boy or I’ll poes you”. and later: “This is not a game, boy  Don’t play with me”. I love that everthing is “poes”, Afrikaans for “pussy”. I love the raunchy sexy stylings and i love the flows, it feels good, it’s a lot of fun.

It’s all there in that song, “Enter the Ninja” the anthemic track that pushes the whole crowd over the edge. It’s a track that has people going mental from Chiba, Japan to Buenos Aires, Argentina and the white boys in the front row are screaming every lyric straight back at the man as he delivers it. Those dudes are living proof of the viral seduction, they’ve literally sat with that song on repeat, playing it over and over until they know every one of those rapid fire rhymes by heart. It’s a moment that crystalises things. Maybe it’s just me but certain songs, at certain times, have a way of overwhelming, sweeping you along in their revolution. I know it won’t last, but right now, this is the shit on everyone’s high rotation.

And it’s almost like he’s addressing all the petty South African media hipsters who’ve made it a sport to diss Waddy’s projects.
“Fuck, this is like the coolest song I ever heard in my whole life
 Fuck all of you who said I wouldn’t make it 
Who said I was a loser 
Said I was a no-one
 Said I was a fuckin’ psycho
 But look at me now
 All up on the interweb 
World-wide, 2009. futuristig”

That last line is almost prescient in it’s accuracy. And regardless what you think of the music, you got to give them kudos for their creation blowing up like this. Ad agencies spend millions of dollars each year trying to achieve the same kind of viral response as Die Antwoord, and fail. But even with all that recognition and the terrabytes of data flowing through the undersea cables that connect our electronic economy, the venue they ended up play brought a crowd of only 250, fifty short of full capacity.

But really it wasn’t about all the middle age hipsters, the guy tweeting on his iphone, the other dude emailing his story from the bonnet of the car parked out front, or the cool guy with the Canon 5D filming from the hip while bopping his head in the front row. This this is about drunk Afrikaans girls who get so loose they started throwing bottles at each other in the mosh pit, causing a fight, stumbling into cigarettes and spilling people’s drinks. It’s about the whole crowd coming together to catch Ninja as he launched himself headlong into a stage dive, and like some rof gam deity, they held him aloft and set him back down so he could continue the show. It’s about the grit in your eye and a dream on a wing. It’s about Yolandi and I, sitting on a branch over a lake, smoking a spliff. Did I just type that.

Now someone needs to go out there and make MUGEN characters out of Yolandi, Waddy ad Hi-Tek. Guilty Gears Style.

Download: Die Antwoord – Fish Paste

Torrent: Search Die Antwoord on TPB

check out the beautiful website.
DieAntwoord.Com

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The Flairs – Trucker’s Delight. wtf.

February 20th, 2010 | Category: Anime, Blog, Cheap, Culture, Design, Electric, Music, Posts, The Arts, Video

can’t see the video? click here.

Love the song, love the works by muddy trench and the. anyhow i think this would make a very cute video game.

OhYeah The Flairs – Trucker’s Delight

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Mark Bittman Eat My Heart Out

February 18th, 2010 | Category: Blog, Culture, Education, Food, Health, Local, News, Politics, Posts, Youtube Filler

Feeling a little like leftover mexican? Think it has anything to do with what you shove into you’re greasy gullet? You might just be right. Nutrition is simple, but the truth seems to be that people let the market make their dietary decisions for them. Imagine food as sex. Do you want cheap superficial mindless sex, or passionate deep substantial sex. Keep up with with the corn-fed chicken nuggets and you’re going to look like ten miles of hard road in no time. A balance diet will make you look and feel better.

Everyone is different and therefore can rely upon a contrast of nutritional need. My rule of thumb would be six to eight glasses of water a day, two parts fresh fruits or vegetables, one part whole grains, one part Eggs, fish and chicken (fresh/free range), and red meat when celebrating death. No fast food and another rule of thumb; when you’re drunk anything goes. But seriously people, take a little stock in your own health.

Mark Bittman covers food politics, the truth about meat today, and what it means to be corn fed. He also discusses how cooking seemingly became complicated over time, which in turn caused us to reply on prepared food.

can’t see the video? click here.

If you’re at all interested and want to see some real figures please help yourself to the whole ten yards:
detailed analysis.

Mark Bittman also done a food blog for the NY Times where you can find delicious and simple recipes:
bitten.blogs.nytimes.com

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Google joins the titans of Silicon Valley lobbying

February 18th, 2010 | Category: Blog, Media, News, Politics, Posts, Preservation of Rights, Software, Technology, The Arts, Web

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With great power comes even greater headaches. Just ask Google.

The company’s transition from upstart to Goliath has multiplied its legal and policy problems. There may be no better measure of this phenomenon than Google’s expansion of its lobbying activities on Capitol Hill.

In just five years, the search engine giant has gone from almost no presence in Washington to spending more money on lobbying than all but one other Silicon Valley company in 2009. And in the past three months, Google topped all other valley spenders.

“The growth in their lobbying reflects what the company has become,” said Dave Levinthal, communications director for the Center for Responsive Politics. “They’ve gone from a tiny company to a behemoth.”

Google’s drive for influence in D.C. extends beyond dollars and cents, and demonstrates remarkable savvy in the ways of Washington. These include Google funding policy fellowships and hosting politicians at the Googleplex, and Google employees taking jobs in the Obama administration.

Google seems determined not to repeat the mistake Microsoft made in the 1990s when the software company ignored politics until it was ensnared in an epic antitrust lawsuit.

There’s certainly nothing unusual about a company aggressively pushing its agenda. But in Google’s case, I think there’s a disconnect between the company’s view of these efforts, and how they look to outsiders.

Google has always
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been a company that believes it has a special mission to make the world better, and it sees its lobbying and policy efforts as part of that crusade. In truth, this massive investment in lobbying is just one more sign that Google is acting like the big corporation it has become.

That’s neither good, nor evil. Sometimes Google’s interests align with the interests of consumers, and sometimes they don’t. But while Google believes it’s not evil, its size means many others will increasingly question whether its motives aren’t less than good.

I put this idea to Alan Davidson, head of U.S. public policy for Google, who said it’s not true, and that Google works to show humility.

“We’ve always known that with growth comes responsibility,” Davidson said. “We’re grateful for the company’s success. We know as we grow, we need to show that we’re a responsible industry leader.”

It seemed like just yesterday we were writing stories about “Google goes to Washington” as the Mountain View company opened its lobbying office in 2005. Now, Google’s right at home.

In 2009, Google spent $4.03 million on its lobbying efforts, up from $260,000 in 2005, according to U.S. Senate records. In the valley, that’s second only to
Oracle, which spent $5.1 million. And in the fourth quarter of 2009, Google outspent Oracle $1.12 million to $1.05 million.

While Google’s expansion is extraordinary, it does reflect an increase in the valley’s investment in lobbying. The top 10 valley companies increased their lobbying expenditures from a total of $12.4 million in 2005 to $26.4 million in 2009. Only Hewlett-Packard, a company that’s been around for decades, came close to matching Google’s expansion, growing from $380,000 in 2005 to $3.62 million last year.

“There was always a plan for steady growth in our presence,” Davidson said. “We knew when we started the office here, the issues facing our users and industries were only going to grow out here in Washington.”

Davidson notes that on some of the issues that Google lobbies for, it now butts heads with companies that spend far more on lobbying. While Davidson wouldn’t say which ones, he’s most likely talking about telecom companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast, whose expenditures ranged from $12 million to $17 million in 2009. Google looks at them, and still sees itself as the guppy.

And in the tech industry, Microsoft and IBM spent more last year, $6.7 million and $5.4 million respectively. But the gap is closing fast.

Davidson said Google’s efforts are benign, aimed at educating politicians and making sure its users’ interests are being heard.

“We started this office with the same philosophy as we did the business,” he said. “If you start with the user and focus on that, everything else will follow. If what we’re doing is good for our users and the Internet community, then it will be good for us in the long term.”

The problem is that the company often seems so certain of its mission that it can’t believe anyone would question its motives.

For instance, in a New York Times op-ed last fall, co-founder Sergey Brin painted Google’s efforts to scan books as a crusade to protect the world’s knowledge against the ravages of history. He bristled over criticisms of a settlement with publishers and authors: “In reality, nothing in this agreement precludes any other company or organization from pursuing their own similar effort. The agreement limits consumer choice in out-of-print books about as much as it limits consumer choice in unicorns.”

Sorry, but it is hubris to expect us to genuflect and accept that Google is doing this purely for the benefit of mankind. Google is scanning books because it expects to make money in some fashion down the road.

Lobbying on behalf of its position doesn’t make Google evil. It just means it’s a big corporation. But for a company with a messianic belief in its purpose, that’s a hard truth to accept.

Contact Chris O’Brien at 415-298-0207
mailto:cobrien@mercurynews.com

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Friday the 15th: “Crash” the Art of Bethany Shorb and Cyberoptix Tielab 2010

January 14th, 2010 | Category: Blog, Culture, Design, Events, Friday, Live Event, Local, Merchandise, Music, Paintings, Party, Photo, Posts, Technology, The Arts, cyberoptix, dethlab, fashion

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metrotimes cover bethany shorb cyberoptix.com

Here’s to a lady who multi-faceted talent and dedication have inspired me to re-create myself several times over. Her works an exhibition of grace in the realms of business and pleasure. Come celebrate the success and bask in the fellowship of Bethany Shorb and _{birthday bud} Michael Doyle on this wonderful evening.

Are you fucking dumb get a map

ps check out these beauties:
sexy photo
hex tie

Don’t forget to buy something, you ought to to look this good.

Original Article:

Bethany Shorb’s Cyberoptix Tielab 2010 Preview and Photography Exhibition:
Special Musical Performance by Justin Carver from “Something Cold” and Deth Lab

Friday Jan, 15th 2010 6pm @ 323East in Royal Oak, MI.

These are not your father’s ties – let’s make that clear first. Cyberoptix? Right – and with a fresh bottle of Old Spice wrapped up with it. Knot quite.

These are the works of an imaginative artist and photographer named Bethany Shorb who took the mundane reality of neckwear and proceeded to give it a twist or two in new directions – with bold color, bolder materials, and the novel idea that a traditional symbol of subservience could be transformed into “a subversive object of desire.”

Reaching that goal was aided immeasurably by Shorb’s other talents; besides photography, she is trained in sculpture, costume design, and prop construction. And THOSE accomplishments, we hasten to add, are complemented nicely by her brutally direct understanding of what see sees or what she wants us to see. Shorb has tackled a variety of subjects and (as evidenced by a recent exhibit inspired by J.G. Ballard’s novel CRASH) her “eye” is not a blinking one by any stretch. Something is heated to an almost unbearable degree in her works. And if you can’t stand the heat … well, best you seek out an environment where the climate is more controlled.

But you don’t want to do that. What you want to do is to see the latest creations by this intriguing talent – the ones that 323 East will unveil on January 15. The cravats are cool. The pix are pulsating. Nice way to make a knot in our opinion.

—–
Schooled in both sculpture and photography, Bethany Shorb creates elaborate prop, costume and set constructions that blur the line between both editorial fashion photography and performance art documentation. Her recent Crash series refers to J.G. Ballard’s novel of the same name with scenes titled by the lyrics of The Normal’s song of similar influence, “Warm Leatherette.” Technology, celebrity, sex, and death are perversely glamorized and fetishised in unison in a single explosion of red Swarovski crystals and inflated black latex rubber. Models, wardrobe and set decoration all retain the same visual and emotional weight, a hyper-saturated amalgamation exploring the interstitial space between the alluring and repulsive; hedonism and restraint; the seductive speed of expressways and the still finality of Last Rights.

Bethany Shorb was born in Boston, MA in 1976. She received her Masters of Fine Arts degree in Sculpture, with an elective in Photography, from Cranbrook Academy of Art and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Sculpture from Boston University with minors in Art History and Photography. Her photography and product design work have been widely published in the United States and abroad; her visual art and product work has been exhibited throughout the United States and is included in numerous private collections. This past summer she taught several printing workshops in her Detroit studio and was recently reviewed in the New York Times and Wired. Her dj alter-ego has performed as half of “Dethlab” at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

Shorb also founded The Cyberoptix Tie Lab in 2006. As a designer of witty hand printed neckwear, she has applied her experience as a sculptor, couture, costume and graphic designer to transform a much maligned business necessity into a subversive object of desire. Cyberoptix ties and scarves are represented by more than 150 stores in a dozen countries: from Fred Segal in Los Angeles to Libertine in Western Australia. A paradox for the times, Cyberoptix Tie Lab operates one of the largest eco-friendly, solvent-free print shops in the country in Downtown Detroit, while providing a seditious, punky fashion statement for executives bound to the neck noose, and a sharply styled alternative for those who don’t need to wear a tie, but choose to do so.

cyberoptix.com
toybreaker.etsy.com
trunkt.org/cyberoptix
toybreaker.net/blog
dethlab.net
myspace.com/teamdethlab

323East.com
Original Metrotimes article via Facebook

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