chuckmore

Have a good July 4th everyone. I’ll be back in a few.

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:20:35 -0400

Have a good July 4th everyone. I’ll be back in a few.

cameronr: Well God is a terrible copy editor then. That...

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:27:33 -0400

cameronr:

Well God is a terrible copy editor then.

That ghost’s face is a heart.

'Pool Party' Schedule

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:40:05 -0400

'Pool Party' Schedule:

They’re not in the pool this year and are at East River State Park instead, but still, wheee!

July 12:  Mission of Burma,  Fucked Up,  Ponytail , Jemina Pearl

July 19:  Dirty Projectors , Magnolia Electric Co., White Denim

July 26: …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, Black Lips , HEALTH,  Grupo Fantasmo

August 2: Deerhunter, No Age, Dan Deacon   (Round Robin show)

August 9:  Simian Mobile Disco (DJ set) , Fiery Furnaces , Dark Meat,  The Netherlands

August 16: Del the Funky Homosapien,  Gravy Train!!! , DD/MM/YYYY, Kenan Bell  

August 23:  Girl Talk , Max Tundra , Wiz Khalifa

August 30: Grizzly Bear , Beach House

This one’s in my top ten.

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:16:00 -0400

This one’s in my top ten.

Let's Clarify.

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 21:34:00 -0400

soupsoup:catbird:

At no point did I say, “DOWN WITH ADVERTISING, TEH INTERNETS SHOULD BE TEH ALL FREE!”

My point is that banner / display / interruptive / pop-up / whatever ads are not a very effective way to convey a brand message in this day and age. And certainly making them LARGER and MORE intrusive is not going to change that.

Other things that aren’t going to change that: gimmicky shit like making the banner on the side that no one looks at interact with the banner on the top that no one looks at. Nor making a giant animated ipod jump down from the top of the page and shake the nav bar. Nor making the banner ads that no one looks at into full-motion video ads that on one looks at.

This type of advertising — ALL OF IT — is akin to having obnoxious billboards slapped across every open space in your neighborhood. I don’t care if your ad is a flashing gif or a multimillion dollar animated piece by TBWA, it is, effecitvely, an obnoxious billboard that announces its presence with all the elegance of used car salesman.

There’s got to be a better way to do this, that’s what I’m saying. Online advertising (in these instances) is effectively just relying on the SAME idea for “advertising on the internet” that was developed more than 10 years ago. An ad box that no one wants or looks at is a box that no one wants or looks at, whether it’s 30px x 30px or 9000px by 20000px.

I’m saying, instead of these online advertising czars thinking “how should we change these ‘ad boxes’”, perhaps everyone might be better served by thinking in terms of “let’s start from scratch and determine what, exactly, does ‘advertising’ mean in light of today’s society, technology, and market?” and working on something NEW from there.

Just because it works in print (“slap an ad next to that editorial!”) doesn’t mean it’s the best way to do it online. And just because something is measurable (“look, your ad got 5,600,987 impressions with 20 clickthrus!”) doesn’t mean it’s GOOD or EFFECTIVE. All it means is its “measurable.”

While I am in no way shape or form anything close to an expert on this subject, and while I also really really hate obnoxious web ads just like everyone else, this seems like it’s more of a criticism of advertising in general, not advertising on the web. Advertising on the internet hasn’t changed in the past ten years? Well, when was the last time print advertising made an evolutionary leap forward? No matter how creative and clever, a full page ad is still a full page ad. Sure, they went from being text heavy to image heavy, and helvetica came along, but it’s ink on paper. Even though I’m still waiting for scratch-n-sniff ads to become cool, the medium has its limits. And just like web ads, print ads are merely ‘measurable’. Unlike web ads, they are far less intrusive, which makes reading the paper far more pleasant than reading the laptop, but only because I literally never pay attention to a single ad that I see in the paper. Ever.

While the internet is an amazing place and things you can do on it have progressed beyond our wildest imaginations over the past ten years, when it boils down to it you’re just looking at a screen. When you watch video on the screen, the ads tend to mimic or directly emulate TV ads — for obvious reasons. When you read on it, the ads tend to mimic print.

The minor leaps forward in web advertising like bigger ads, content disguised as ads and crazy iPod ads have not been effective. Everyone can agree on that. But is there really a better way that everyone in the world hasn’t been able to think of yet? Maybe. Probably. Hopefully.

But maybe it is not the way we advertise on the web that has to change, but how the effectiveness is measured that has to change. Full page ads in the New York Times cost a lot of money, and the Times doesn’t only get paid when someone clips a coupon and brings it into Bloomingdales.

Sorry if this read like the first chapter from the Captain Obvious guide to internet advertising!

alexbalk: Obviously I am not a religious man, but it is...

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:47:39 -0400

alexbalk:

Obviously I am not a religious man, but it is precisely this kind of mendacious bullshit that makes me wish there were a God, so that He might best exact His justice on this sick fuck who was so instrumental in sending so many men and women to their death or dismemberment in the service of a philosophy that goes against everything America stands for. FUCK YOU KARL ROVE YOU FUCKING SELF-SERVING PRICK. Spending the rest of your life in a wheelchair while you shit into a bag wouldn’t begin to cover the karmic debt you owe to every American you put in harm’s way to promote your psychotic agenda.

Photo

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:34:37 -0400

Canada Day Part 2

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:39:32 -0400

Canada Day Part 2

Canada Day!

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:02:27 -0400

Canada Day!

soupsoup: Live: Obama’s Online Town Hall on Health Care

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:46:51 -0400

soupsoup:

Live: Obama’s Online Town Hall on Health Care

Sarah Palin Independence Day Apparently there was an earlier...

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:06:00 -0400

Sarah Palin Independence Day

Apparently there was an earlier version of this tribute to Sarah that had some semi-racist overtones and King Kong imagery or something. Then that got removed, and now there’s this new version which is full of pretty standard glamor shots for the first minute, and then there are some fireworks, and then it is weird for a second. Idunno. Maybe not that weird. But if I were making a Independence Day political promo vid, I don’t think I’d linger on a shot of a black lady getting dragged away yelling as the finale.

Photo

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:22:16 -0400

hortenseg: On this day in 1979, Sony released the first...

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 11:14:33 -0400

hortenseg:

On this day in 1979, Sony released the first Walkman.

In honor of the Walkman’s 30th birthday: what was the first cassette you ever owned?

Probably the Cats sountrack or something. But the first casette I ever bought? Simpsons Sing the Blues and the Unskinny Bop single at the same time.

Spiedi: "9/11 Was Definitely An Inside Job"

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:40:05 -0400

Spiedi: "9/11 Was Definitely An Inside Job":

hortenseg:

You have to read this, because I listened to it this morning, and it is the craziest fucking shit this side of Crazytown.

Oh man! Here’s the audio. PRICELESS.

t. rex - summertime blues (via lom)

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:01:08 -0400

t. rex - summertime blues

(via lom)

SENATOR STUART SMALLEY!!!!!!!!!

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:40:59 -0400

lizistwentythree:

Minnesota has two senators again!

People like him!

Oklahoma Republicans Ready to Blame the Recession on ‘Debauchery’

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:01:42 -0400

Oklahoma Republicans Ready to Blame the Recession on ‘Debauchery’:

Not a joke…

WHEREAS, we believe our economic woes are consequences of our greater national moral crisis; and

WHEREAS, this nation has become a world leader in promoting abortion, pornography, same sex marriage, sex trafficking, divorce, illegitimate births, child abuse, and many other forms of debauchery; and

WHEREAS, alarmed that the Government of the United States of America is forsaking the rich Christian heritage upon which this nation was built; and

WHEREAS, grieved that the Office of the president of these United States has refused to uphold the long held tradition of past presidents in giving recognition to our National Day of Prayer; and

WHEREAS, deeply disturbed that the Office of the president of these United States disregards the biblical admonitions to live clean and pure lives by proclaiming an entire month to an immoral behavior;

I love the phrase “their ideological agenda for...

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:41:08 -0400

I love the phrase “their ideological agenda for government-run health care.” The conservative argument against climate legislation, health care reform, etc., always seems to center around this inexplicable notion that liberals simply want to control your life. They aren’t trying to help you, they just want to own you. And why do they want to own you? Why is there an environmentalist conspiracy? Why do they want to come between you and your doctor? The answer, I guess, always comes down to an insatiable thirst for power. That liberals have. Because they all secretly wish they were Hitler.

Must read of the day, or so I hear… I’m working on...

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:44:44 -0400

Must read of the day, or so I hear… I’m working on it.

Photo

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:03:48 -0400