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Perhaps it’s the rainy weather that drew me toward Janet this weekend. Her 1990 album Rhythm Nation 1814 just sounds like sunshine and rollerskates.
This is the only album to ever notch 7 top 5 Billboard hits. It surely spawned millions of slumber party dance routines and lead to Janet signing the largest recording contract at the time, $32 million with Virgin.
Jay-Z’s video for On To The Next One is brilliant. It feels controlled yet crazy. It times image to sound perfectly. And, it has Community‘s Joel McHale playing The Joker. When describing the video from script to screen, director Sam Brown said:
I’m aware that as I’m shooting the images are getting darker and odder. Jay and his people came and went so they haven’t seen anything else. I wonder what the hell they’re going to think of it all. Whenever I’ve been given a big opportunity I’ve tried to be a bit reckless with it, to take chances. It’s very rare that this doesn’t pay off in some way. Playing things safe never gets you anywhere.
Comedian (and former ad man) Maz Jobrani tipped us to the fact that on the upcoming Census, Iranian-Americans are asked to mark “other” on question 9 and write in Iranian or Iranian-American. He notes that the FBI does not get these forms, but asks that you let him know if you end up getting deported so that he does not fill out his like so.
In 2009, Super Bowl XLIII was watched by 38.3 million women. This is the 3rd largest female audience for ANY television event since Neilsen started tracking by gender in 1991. And yet in 2010, still there are no Super Bowl ads that overtly court this massive viewership.
Given advertisers’ love of eyeballs, I’m wondering why this market opportunity is ignored every single year. I think whomever chooses to step in this direction will certainly stand out from the crown by dint of difference, with great odds of retention, recall and ROI.
Jordan Alport was selected as a 2010 fellow with the The Design Trust / Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA). He will be helping to create and launch Made in Midtown, a study about the role that the Fashion District plays in the life of NYC.
As explained by The Design Trust:
New York remains a global fashion leader, but few outside the industry understand the complex networks that establish both its competitive edge and the unique character of its physical spaces. Made in Midtown will make the Garment District’s industrial ecosystem visible and accessible to a broad public audience and will present a compelling vision for the District’s future based on an accurate assessment of the political and economic resources available to support creative industries in Midtown and throughout New York City.
Project Fellows – a filmmaker, a journalist, an urban planner and an urban design team – will interview and film key stakeholders (from designers to garment workers, landlords to suppliers), weaving these stories together with accessible, engaging infographics and diagrams that illustrate how fashion industry businesses are tied to each other and to the physical spaces of the District.
The Fellows will also examine how specific elements – from storefronts displaying colorful fabrics to the ubiquitous garment delivery racks crowding the sidewalks – help produce the Garment District’s unique identity. All of this work will culminate in an interactive website and an accompanying publication that will help guide policies for light manufacturing industries citywide.
Jordan needed a quick solution for lighting a small shoot this afternoon and built a small soft-box. I passed him the pirate tape. We were immensely proud of ourselves afterwards.