social-creature

In Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between Who We Are and What We Buy, Rob Walker talks about “underground brands”–lifestyle symbols created by independent entrepreneurs. In fact, I actually think it’s easier to think of underground brands as “independent brands,” (cuz what does “underground” really mean, anyway?) much like independent music:
In popular music, independent music, [...]

(wish there was an extended version).

Just came across a great article in Fast Company about Obscura last night. Many of the Do LaB’s collaborators and friends from the El Circo collective work with this San Francisco multimedia design lab that Fast Company likens to “an alternate universe dreamed up by someone who’s been mainlining Pixy Stix.”
[Obscura] create[s] visual spaces and [...]

Once you ‘got’ Pop, you could never see a sign again the same way again. And once you thought Pop, you could never see America the same way again.
- Andy Warhol

It is totally disconcerting to discover a book that pretty much compiles your insights and articulates them back to you. Buying In: The Secret Dialogue [...]

(thanks Paul)

…And I can make you wanna buy a product
Movers shakers and producers
Me and my friends understand the future
- The Flobots: “Handlebars”

I’ve been trying to get through Matt Mason’s The Pirate’s Dilemma for a while. It’s an easy read, but between digging up mind-blowing historical discoveries from the cultural strata–Did you know that a nun [...]

in real life, this was one of the most unbelievable views i’d ever seen.

“I am real!” said Alice, and began to cry.
- Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll

I always find it fascinating when movies do things that executives didn’t expect. Entertainment, particularly the kind with narratives and characters, is like a Rorschach test where what we have to say about the inkblot and what the inkblot [...]

More on Lightning in a Bottle later.
First i’m trying to recover from a week in the forest. As part of the decompression process, yesterday involved a trip to the hair salon, which meant I actually had time to do nothing but sit around and read for the first time in quite a while.
“It’s the Adultery, [...]

Lightning in a Bottle is in a week, and i have no time to write anything else, but check out this issue of the Artist Network. it’s all about stories so that’ll absolutely keep you entertained in the meantime. i will get back to having time to be more insightful after may 28th.
thank you to [...]