Des Temps

Author: MHB

  • Yup, the 90's are the new 80's.

    save me dear

    I used to raid my mother’s closet for cool clothes.
    But now I just raid my own.

    -Erinn, 26

    Our cultural examination of last decade began in 2004 with the VH1 series I Love the 90’s. It started getting remixed amongst cool kids from NYC to Kansas in 2006. Grunge, Hypercolor and Hammer Pants were a clear influence at fashion shows throughout 2007. Musically, 90’s synth is coming back via DFA, DJs are spinning New Jack Swing and the fuzztortion rock of that time is coming back via Matador darling Jay Reatard. Hell, I even made tidy sum by flipping a rack of early 90’s track suits to a vintage boutique.

    oMLCrzy9TEs
    (is an ad campaign gonna grab this Running Man’s coattails?)

    —-
    superkewl!

    But.uh.but, so what? I might just be trainspotting. Nostalgia is normal like death + taxes, and with our increasing speed, the lag time between events and their canonization is ever decreasing.

    There is some thought in design circles that along with the angles and edges of 90’s design, we’re moving into new aesthetic ground, that magazines like Super Super or Men’s Vogue signify a ‘new ugly’ backlash to the cleanliness of Apple/Ikea/Google. But witness Tiger Beat’s font orgy from 1972. Or just think back to any collages made in your teen years. Or DaDa. Messy is always the hip response to clean.

    1972, same year Atari was formed.

    Graphic design is now a global conversation like never before thanks to our pal the internet. From Mumbai to Minneapolis, people are sharing in the experience of using the same aesthetics and architecture of MySpace, Apple, WordPress, etc… I wonder will this spreading + sharing foster a greater diversity of styles that get accepted as having value, both artistically and professionally? Or as we all begin to talk amongst ourselves, will it flatten out regional aesthetics like regional accents? If so, are we arching toward a common ground of efficient design, maybe even something naturally intrinsic? Toward beauty or toward Babel?
    kollagingb4u were born. or Prince was writing songtitles. or hipsters were drppng vwls

  • Honey Smacks & Hawaiian Punch

    last-supper1.jpg
    This Thursday morn the snarkosphere is flitting about the new Kellogg’s Street Wear line. While the campaign is corporate corny and the models chagrined, it’s not wholly off base. Streetwear has long history of rocking cartoon characters that Ad Age, Gawker & I wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole. But what’s truly of note is that this might be the first time that cartoon characters flipped streetstyle are not a bootleg, but coming from the F500 HQ.

    Time will tell if the products sell. While waiting, click below to see how the streets are riding Pepsi.

    gu3adzXwgcgAnd what I love is that it seems the men with cars took their cues from the kids with bikeshQGLNPJ9VCE
    ——
    car vid via Frank 151

  • Bug Hunt

    Game On

    I’m not a fan of video art, but not sure why. Sometimes I think when the execution is abstract, it lacks purpose and gets buoyed by explication. Or when it’s referential, it smacks of clever (and nowadays is far better executed online than in the gallery). Maybe I’m just behind the times.

    But last week whilst wandering through the Hunter MFA Open Studios, I got mesmerized by Robert Debbane’s 90 second Bug Hunt. It’s a great tapestry of abstract + referential and has since made me start questioning my previous stance.

    LKSUWyBsxOg
    (your browser is fine, there’s no sound at the jump)

  • Hello, Spring

    Zhara's Rainbow

    My Hawaiian surfergirl Zhara just sent this picture and a note that “the horse, rainbow and colors are all real. life is fucking great.” So for those who are reading this today in NYC, where spring is winking, I beseech you to finish them taxes, go outside & engage First Life to the fullest.

  • America's Best Dance Crews….

    from the bronx to korea to bucktown
    The 2 strongest troupes from the MTV hit America’s Best Dance Crew, Jabbawockeez and Kaba Modern, help to illustrate that US BBoying is now very much ‘an Asian thing’. While Asian agency in hip-hop has been big since the late 90’s (turntablism + sneaker culture being the strongest), it’s now gonna go pop on the mass culture radar. Soon a raft of them cool brands will have ads featuring Asian breakers, a new move in representational politics for the danceform.

    0eN9KP6lOZs
    (the dad in the above McDonalds spot is not just wondering “What is my kid doing?” but “Who is this ad reaching?”)

    In addition to the MTV show, the sharp doco Planet BBoy takes this conversation onto the global level, examining different crews from around the world. Witness a clip on the recent Korean BBoy explosion:

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    In all honesty, the last thing I want to see is more hip-hop used in adverts. In the 80’s, BBoys and breaking were overexposed in pop culture, and the form went back underground. Twenty years hence, with this ‘new’ BBoy writ large, I do wonder what connections (or caricatures) will come from Madison Avenue.
    split level?
    (photog credit)
    —–
    6/10/08 Model Minority?

  • Chocolate Haas

    to melt with youIf Cadbury didn’t move you, artist Sander Plug has some Dutch chocolate on tap. Honestly don’t know what anthro to add to this, but I’ve been watching it on repeat. It’s an artfully rendered execution of what many a lad did to their GI Joes, or a Barbie Doll, if vexed with sis.

    T-SZYZLfZ7E
    —-
    shout to Josh S for the OG report and Josh K for sending it our way.

  • Cadbury, Airport Trucks, WTF***?

    Art can have no clear endingFallon’s new Cadbury ad fails in every way that Gorilla succeeds. No whimsy. No personal touch. It ain’t going viral.

    The premise of the spot is that a fleet of airport vehicles has “pimped themselves to show their unique character, ready for the race of their lives.”[1] So, like Pixar’s Cars, we’re expecting cheeky and anthropomorphized characters.
    Cool, let’s roll.

    lf0hOxFzSLI

    Now it feels like the truck we’re supposed to root for is the small orange underdog we follow from last place. But just as it gets toward the front, the spot cuts to a Dukes of Hazzard shot of the large blue truck. So is that now our hero? Dunno. In closing the camera pulls up, Queen sings “no stopping” and the trucks keep trucking. So not only am I still sans hero, I don’t know who wins the great race.

    Well, maybe the spot is not about one truck in particular, but about their collective joy at an illicit runway race. Yet throughout the ad, we keep seeing bits and pieces of humans, prepping and driving the vehicles. This furthers our narrative dissonance: Are our heros the trucks or the drivers? We never meet the drivers, so can’t pick a fave, but care less about the trucks, cause they haven’t truly “pimped themselves”.

    I’m lost and lonely on the tarmac.

    Now dear reader I love abstraction. Some of my favourite movies have no clear arc or heroic payoff – Lost in Translation, I’m Not There, Hiroshima Mon Amour, etc… Great adverts and art empower themselves to tweak narrative conventions. Fallon’s Gorilla is one of those greats, a 90 second window into the world of a hirsute drummer. I love that spot like a fat kid loves cake. But Airport Trucks? Similac.

    TApA1fyoSdk
    —-
    [1]Cadbury’s Tony Bilsborough