When Desedo Films comes to your ‘hood (at five in the morning), believe that we’re coming away with something fresh (and a hacking cough). Hat tip to Sobotka for the inspiration.
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Great Googly Moogly!
Our friend Anj authors the funnest blog Great Googly Moogly. Her site was borne out of image searches for things like “inspiration” or “totally fun”. Love that. Could she make money by turning the blog into a full blown image farm? Pulling all the top results from key image searches, then hosting them, building supporting links and selling adspace if traffic rolls in? Basically hijacking Google Images (GI). Or could one create adspace sites based upon echoing the daily content that creeps up the Digg charts? People would land there via google keyword searches, and if the content was humorous op-ed, it could even be worth reading. Like an external comment board or the Buzzfeed aggregator. Prolly exists already, send me a link if you’ve got it.
I’ve been thinking about this because in March there was an image of the Kool Aid man on Digg. As it rose to the top of the heap, people began searching for it on Google and arriving on our site, as we too had a picture of the Kool Aid man, but different from the in question. And now somedays we are the 4th result in a GI search for Kool Aid. Somedays MIA.
What other googlery lands folks on Des Temps? Image search Nerd and we’re #5. We’re #s 1, 2 & 3 for Black Nerds. Searches for Marc Jacobs and Max Ernst also bring us new friends. And the true feather in our cap is being 13th in the hunt for Old Volvos. So so so. Going beyond whimsy and eschewing adsense, is there anything of note that we can do with these results? SEO suggestions welcomed.
UPDATE:
5/15/08 For the last few days we were #1 GI for Larry Bird.
5/22/08 Today we are #1 in a GI search for Max Ernst.
6/9/08 #2 for Bush Cheney.
6/24/08 #5 for Dinosaur Fight.
6/26/08 #4 for Ritalin -
Garden Grow
While I’m a city mouse through and through, I’ve got a wicked greenstreak. Grew up tromping about barefoot, worked for the NYC Parks department and then stepped off the grid to go farming. And then when I entered the TV game, my first two shows involved gardening and organica.
And so this spring I’ve found myself spending as much time as possible working in my backyard. And, uh, skipping industry and social events so that I could head home to prune rosebushes, transplant hostas and befriend snails.
(don’t front, you know it’s cool)
In my head, I’ve been seeing colors like Dr. Seuss.
So. If any of our dear readers want to bask in the glow of these here flowers, get some dirt under yer fingernails and crush a cup of wine with us, certainly send an email.
(We’re not a cult. I promise.) -
mangez frais/coma fresco
Getting lunch at Subway, the man behind the counter spoke to me in English, his co-workers in French and another customer in Spanish. I asked how many languages. He said four, but that his Arabic was a bit rusty.
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I Am The INTERNET
My brother Andrew is one of them millennials, born in 86 and reading physics at college. Last Halloween he went galavanting about town dressed as “The Internet”. We were just talking about Mental Detox Week, and he sent me the below. Thought yall might enjoy it uncut:
I built my Halloween costume with the mountain of obsolete ethernet cords that sat under the television in our house. In costume, I told people that I was mostly porn, and to ask me any question. It took time for people to learn that the almighty internet does not always have the correct answer. One grew irritated and asked me “Why don’t you know?” I turned on my heel and refilled my beer. The internet can be a fickle beast.
I’m now dating a girl who does not have a cell phone. We manage to meet up for dates and coffee just fine without talking on the telephone. I have a sixth sense (formerly called “common sense”) that lets me think “Where is Lisa right now? Aha! It’s dinner time — she’s undoubtedly at her house eating dinner,” and, usually, I’m right. It’s not an exact science. We’re both habitually late, but instead of peppering each other with phone calls when the other doesn’t show, we simply show up and stay put. It saves energy and money and provides valuable time for reflection, reading, or a Marlboro Medium. Lisa often expounds on the virtues of slow-living. Losing your cell phone is the first step. Then one must wait for some time before taking step two.
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Horse Racing and Dog Fighting?
So. Anyone else out there see similarities between horse racing and dog fighting? At its root, both the horses and the dogs bear the burden of our desire for entertainment. And when they give their lives in the process, it’s in the name of sport. While I know that I cannot draw a straight parallel between the Michael Vick case and Eight Belles’ death at the Kentucky Derby, they look like kissing cousins. In a cloying New York Times article today, noted author and horse breeder Jim Squires says:
Horses break their legs running across pastures with no one on their backs. Whether wild or domesticated, they race with one another and often try so hard they hurt themselves. They run through fences. They kick each other regularly, often breaking their own legs and those of others. They, too, have to be euthanized. Horses who never saw a racetrack in their lives founder regularly from mysterious causes and end up like Barbaro.
Ain’t that just a paddock full of pony tears. Dogs fight each other too, don’t mean that we should be building pits for it. Or that we should be racing young horses well before their bones are fully formed. Makes me think of an E.T.-era Drew Barrymore on coke. And Squires then asks:
…why can’t we can quit pushing horses into the gate on television and whipping them to make them run? If the trainer can’t train his horse to go in the gate and the gate workers can’t put it in there without force, scratch him. Usually there is a reason a horse does not want to go in there. And usually the horses that want to run don’t have to be whipped. Beating a horse during a race and having it break down under the rider and lose its life is no way to build public support and attract new owners to this sport.
With the practice of beating ingrained in this sport, is it easy to mill about in madras yet detain dog fighting do-rags? All too easy. Read another take on the tragic death of the filly and the brutality of horse racing, penned by the eversage Start Snitching.
I’m off to a bullfight with Hemingway and Almodovar. The bulls like dying this way, ensconced in art, roses & honor.
KNdzcTZUW54
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Related Links:
NYT bit about death by jumping.
Eight Belles/Sean Bell -
ODB Lives
Intentional cultural poaching or no, ODB Liquors on Mission Hill in Boston might be the most keenly named individual business I’ve come across. I can think of no better tribute to the man and his work.
b2-5GSjZvW8 The name has to be intentional, right?
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[1] I’ve just spent the past half-hour recapping ODB’s career on youtube. If NSFW street language isn’t a problem, you might want to check out the linked Pryor-esque clip of Ol’ Dirty monologizing onstage. Among many Barron’s-level gems, we hear the nearly-quotable aphorism, “Before drugs was illegal, b----, it was LEGAL!”
[2] Hip-hop’s cultural fluidity as spoiler of youth reigns as ever (vocal lines on the song sampled from ODB). Stunner shades for all.