March 2005 Archives

Compact-Impact Night is a renowned new media and design exhibition that promotes the latest ideas and creations in technology, and places them in a design and technology store for public viewing. Compact-Impact Night bridges the gap between concept and production by providing artists the opportunity to display their works in a retail environment. The theme of Compact-Impact Night volume 4 is games. The games we exhibit will exist in a variety of formats: computer games, networked games, technology oriented toys, electronic gadgets, installations.... almost anything that is new media based and retail-oriented.

Lots of kids I know from ITP have great things in this show, so please check it out. If my recommendation isn't good enough for you: hey, free beer at tomorrow night's opening!

Compact-Impact Night Vol 4: Games
21 Ave B (between 2nd and 3rd)
Opening party: April 1, 6 pm
Last day: April 3

So what's the deal with Europe, people? The last time I checked they had phone lines, cell phones and internet access over there.

I'm working on the SF Bay Area edition of 24in48 right now (this Friday and Saturday, April 1 and 2! Still looking for a few good people!) and I've got The Ashlee Simpson Show on in the background, and dear dog, help me but it turns out she's covering two of my very favorite songs on her current tour, The Pretenders' Brass in Pocket and Blondie's Call Me.

Help me exorcise the demons, friends: let's go karaoke! (Phaedra, I'm looking at you.)

Adagio Teas doesn't pop up on the first page of results when you search Google for "tea", which I'm sure is a drag for business, so they've decided to go a step further than just buying a Google AdWord: if you link to their site, they will "mail you a delicious tea reward that is commensurate with your webpage's Google PageRank".

Sounds too good to be true, no? Except that my friend Yukino linked to them a few weeks back and recently received their PageRank 5+ reward, a lovely two cup pot and four tins of tea. I'm trying to learn to like tea and this seems like a great opportunity to get some good tea for free, so I'm going to give it a try. Tea!

I hate spam and I hate spammers. I get spam in my email, spam in my comments and spam trackback pings, but tonight I stumbled onto another sort of spammer: a Flickr tag spammer!

Keith Ramsey of Knoxville, TN, a.k.a. knightinink, uploaded 11 illustrations to Flickr on March 21st, made sure each one had a link to its particular page on his CafePress site and promptly tagged each with every single one of the 145 most popular tags on Flickr (a bit of which you can see from this screenshot),:

presumably in the hope that people would see them in the streams for each tag and buy shirts with his fairy illustrations on them.

Congratulations, Kevin! You are a Flickr tag spammer. Unfortunately for you the Flickr staff spotted you right away and now none of your illustrations (or anything you upload in the future) will ever appear in any public stream.

Make sure to check out his Xanga^* and online portfolio, the latter of which has his email address, in case any of you want to commission an illustration.

^* Wait, what's going on? I didn't know white people were allowed to sign up for Xangas, except for Fred Durst.

Teen Vogue used to be an uber guilty pleasure for me, something I'd pick up each time I bought the New Yorker to help ensure I didn't revert back into the literary snob I used to be in what seems an entire lifetime ago. At some point in the last year I stopped picking the New Yorker up regularly, but I started getting Teen Vogue pretty much every month^*.

I don't think it's anywhere near representative of what teenage girls actually like or give a shit about—I mean, how many of them are likely to know who Jane Birkin is, let alone care that her daughter Lou Doillon is apparently a style icon? And how many of them are going to be buying umbrellas that go for an average of $90, like the ones in April's umbrella editorial? Shit, I won't pay a street vendor more than $5 even if I'm trapped under a tiny awning in Chinatown during a torrential downpour along with a horde of sweaty tourists in shorts and beltbags. So really I enjoy Teen Vogue because it's a clear guide to what the editors think its target market should aspire to, and I suspect that target market contains legions of 20- and 30-something Carrie Bradshaw-wannabes who've either accepted that they can't afford couture or haven't accepted that they aren't 17 anymore, or both.

Anyway, one of the things I like best is figuring out which stars Teen Vogue thinks are hot and which are on their way out, according to how many times their photos appear in the magazine every month. I finally decided to tally them for the current issue and once I did, I figured I might as well share them with you guys, so here's Teen Vogue's Star Zeitgeist for April 2005:

Barton, Mischa: 2
Bilson, Rachel: 3 (cover)
Bledel, Alexis: 0
Bosworth, Kate: 2
Bundchen, Gisele: 2 (both times with Leo)
Bush, Barbara: 0
Bush, Jenna: 0
Bush, Sophia: 1
Bush Twins (together): 1
Diaz, Cameron: 0
Duff, Hillary: 0
Dunst, Kirsten: 4
Gyllenhaal, Maggie: 1
Hilton, Nicky: 0
Hilton, Paris: 1
Holmes, Katie: 2
Johansson, Scarlett: 3
Knowles, Beyonce: 2 (one with Destiny's Child)
Lohan, Lindsay: 1
Lopez, Jennifer: 1
Miller, Sienna: 1
Olsen, Ashley: 1
Olsen, Mary-Kate: 1
Olsen Twins (together): 0
Portman, Natalie: 1
Richie, Nicole: 0
Rossum, Emmy: 1
Simpson, Ashlee: 1
Simpson, Jessica: 0
Spears, Britney: 0
Stefani, Gwen: 2
Trachtenberg, Michelle: 2 (on pages about new movie)
Van Camp, Emily: 2 (one an entire page)
Williams Sisters: 0
Werbowy, Daria: 1
Zehetner, Nora: 1

Winner: Kirsten Dunst
Runner-up: Scarlett Johansson

Poor Nicky Hilton, she had a one page ad for her new line in there but not one photo of herself; sister Paris had one so I guess she's still someone who has to be mentioned, just not much. Pity also Hillary Duff, who was the December/January cover but apparently isn't cool enough to warrant a single photo three months later. I guess Teen Vogue also feels Lindsay Lohan isn't so hot now even though (or because?) she's in the tabloids all the time as she only got one photo in there.

Boys (so they don't feel left out):

Brody, Adam: 0
DiCaprio, Leo: 2 (both times with Giselle)
Grace, Topher: 2
Hilton, Tyler: 1 (entire page)
Kutcher, Ashton: 1
McKenzie, Benjamin: 0
Timberlake, Justin: 0

Winner: Topher Grace

What, no 50 Cent?

Teen-oriented TV dramas:

Everwood: 3
Gilmore Girls: 0
One Tree Hill: 2
Point Pleasant: 0
That 70s Show: 3
The O.C.: 6 (including cover)

Winner: The O.C.

Shocking, just shocking, I know!

More Teen Vogue Star Zeitgeist next month, assuming my interest doesn't suddenly flag.

^* I also get Jane, (when I can remember) Readymade—even though I've never made a single project from it—and (when I can find it) Bust. I should just subscribe, I know, but there's a special thrill to picking stuff up at the stand.

I still don't know what "Sussudio" means exactly, but thank you Swifty for bringing Ol' Dirty Bastard's cover of the Phil Collins classic to my attention.

Ah, Phil Collins, wildly underrated pop genius. How I love thee. As much as I love both Kelly Clarkson's single Since U Been Gone and Mssr Ted Leo, I would happily erase all trace of Leo's live Since U Been Gone cover from my memory if he would only cover Sussudio. Now that would really be this week's best thing ever.

• Earn cash for your opinions on Movie Trailers
• Lower the risk for heart disease
• Take control
• forget loneliness
• Pleasure your partner better then ever!
• Start feeling great right now
• re: Do you want to meet boys
• it's time
• Thank You
• $320,000 for less than $600 a month!
• c"um when u want"
• THIS MAY INTEREST YOU
• There's always another option!

Holy crap, why didn't anyone ever tell me Kelly Clarkson's new single Since U Been Gone was so good? My ears are so happy right now, you have no idea.

(As Merlin said, "It’s, like, scientifically infectious. And you can’t fight science.")