Des Temps

Author: raafi

  • So L.A. it hurts

    Sticking with our location theme here, I’ve got to give a shout out to the Sacramento Community College Players. Those being, of course, John C. Reilly, Maya Rudolph, Margaret Cho, Neil Patrick Harris et al. with a special appearance by Jack Black. Prop 8, the musical. Does it count less if all the actors are stars?

    I’ve been quizzing everyone I know recently about social media and the web. The old gray lady just started including external links to blogs (among other things) on the front page, and the funniest shared video I’ve seen this week has ads popping onscreen ad infinitum. I’m not sure anyone’s figured out the content / advertising /subscription model yet, but hell if they’re not trying.

    —
    h/t to MTLB

  • The World According to James

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    The popcorn, jokes, and testosterone zing around the room with all the patience of an electron. Across town the same scene is amplified in a crowded bar, long and skinny, the popcorn substituted with beer. In both rooms the flicker of television screens — rhythm — and the dance between sports and advertising provides the meter by which the hours will unfold. Where elbows and dripping bottles crowd one space, coasters and crumbs crowd the other. It is the job of Lebron James to communicate above the din in both these spaces. If, during commercial breaks, he can do just half of what his body does during the game many millionaires not pictured on the screen sweating and chest-bumping will be just as enthused.

    LeBron James, the icon, comes to form before our eyes. We see, just a bit sharper in Nike’s new spot “Chalk.”

    And was that Lil Wayne mugging from the courtside seats? Indeed, we’re not sure if the cameo will help sell more albums to sports fans or sneakers to hip-hop fans, but the will is there. He’s even blogging for ESPN. Guess who he talks about most?

    LeBron James was a junior in high school when he first appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated. His senior season’s games were broadcast nationally on ESPN. Now a six-year pro and gold medalist, the table is set for him to become a legitimate media personality, or, as Nike once put it, for us to Witness.

    —
    further reading at Esquire.
    Early SI cover here.

  • Wassup 2008

    wassup tongue

    After the saturation we got from these guys, I was pretty sure we wouldn’t hear from them again until some misty ad review a generation later. Turns out I was only half a generation off:

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    With even the industry press piping about what it calls creative marketers (and squeezing a Barack Obama cover out of it), it seems the intersection of culture, commerce, and politics is an irresistible potion these days. And for the next ten days or so, what’s current in current events will continue to be the fulcrum of everything else. Of course, Cheech tried to explain this long, long ago:

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    In fact, Cheech pretty much nailed everything. Waas Sappening for President.

    —
    BusinessWeek with the story behind the spot

  • The Dark Bailout

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    Quoth the President after yesterday’s failed talks:

    “If money isn’t loosened up, this sucker could go down.” [nyt]
    —
    video link via DF

  • Branded Local

    bagel with that
    marco... polo...

    This past summer in my uptown New Orleans neighborhood I noticed some funky stuff going on in the shop windows. In a city in which local and neighborhood identity means everything to folks, certain shop owners had taken the step to support a local artist in the most surprising way. Instead of the standard issue open/closed signs that most places use, a number of shops in the area had hand-painted signs — all of them painted and dated by the same guy: Simon.

    dated 2008. uh-oh.
    simple, direct

    I never got the story on Simon. Later I saw that he owns an antique shop and calls himself a “Louisiana habitat endangered artist.” Likewise, it is the wit and personality of his signs that calls out. Many of his “closed” signs, for example, omit the final letter “d” thus presenting the visitor with a pun, “store close.” His closed sign for the women’s shoe store Bella is cut in the shape of a foot, and a separate sign of his in the window announces, “girls love shoes.”

    messaging is key

    The oval-shaped brand at the bottom of his signs make Simon the Ford of hand-painted open/closed signs in Uptown New Orleans. But even he has competitors. Still, as a shopper, it was with a small smile that I crossed the threshold into shops signed by him. If there is as unique a visual culture to another commercial strip in America, I haven’t seen it. But I’ll be looking.

  • Parting Shots

    Mardi Gras colors everywhere
    many layers of dereliction

    Here are a couple of my best shots from New Orleans. After being away from New York for two months, it’s been a bit of a culture shock slipping back into go mode. As for reflections on that strange and vibrant place, there are many. The richness of the speech might be the first that comes to mind. I overheard a man chatting with the clerk at the counter of a convenience store. In expressing a resigned “what can you do” kind of sentiment, the following words came from his mouth:

    Now that Johnnie Cochran’s dead, I guess I can’t cut nobody.

    He knew that the space between the words of customers and clerks was not designed for cleverness, and it was there he chuckled to himself quietly before the conversation veered in another direction. “Ain’t gonna be another Johnnie,” he said, picking up his bags, “y’all take care.”

  • Brand JC

    Smiths buried here.

    During a drive down the LaFourche bayou a few days ago, I had the pleasure of seeing a 15-foot statue of JC standing outside of a Vietnamese church, and visiting a small memorial/church that could fit inside my living room. I was reminded that the distinct class of stylish laptop users who visit my local coffee shop is diverse enough to include the leadership of the Vintage Church, who conduct an operations meeting there weekly. Rob, whose style I would describe as Surf, leads the group through the mechanics of the organization’s upcoming needs while Andrew’s laptop seems to be the device responsible for managing data.

    talk to the hand.

    Desedo design peeps wndr, are responsible for the branding of Epic, “a Christ believing community that exists in the real world.” Similarly, it might as well have been between viewings of The Real World in my MTV-aided youth that I learned of the Skate Ministry, which is still kicking by the way; there are even imitators. It looks like You Know Who’s getting a facelift.

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    1. jocular Epic collateral here.