June 27, 2005
Congratulations, Nike. . .
. . .you're still evil.
On the left, the iconic image of Ian MacKaye on the first Minor Threat album cover - a man who, even at the height of his popularity, has never sold a record for more than $10 or charged more than $6 for a show. Nor ever sold his image or music for advertising purposes. On the right, Nike's new ad for their skateboarding tour. Unauthorized, of course.
Update: My good friend Santa gives his excellent analysis of the evil genius behind Nike's ad campaign (scroll down to the second post).
Posted by starlen at 10:56 AM | Comments (2)
June 21, 2005
Links
- Tucson Classified Obituary: the stolen election of 2000 and living with right-winged Americans finally brought him to his early demise.
- Maybe the best police composite sketch ever?
- Ulysses Speaks! Somebody's putting up scans of the Nation of Ulysses zines from some 15 years ago.
- Batman and Me: An NPR replay of a Bob Kane interview from 1990.
- Unbuilt homes sell like crazy - Creeping closer to a bursting bubble?
- George Weller's Nagasaki reports printed at last, after being censored for over 60 years
- Ralph Reed of the Christian Coalition running for Lieutenant Governor of Georgia - This is bad, as his ultimate political aspirations are definitely aimed much higher.
Posted by starlen at 11:27 AM | Comments (0)
June 20, 2005
Escape from Salvation Mountain!
Over the weekend, Ian and I headed out for a return trip to the Salton Sea. Heavy with supplies procured from Galco's Soda Pop Stop and Chick-fil-a, we drove almost three hours in to the middle of nowhere to drive around in deserted nothingness.
Almost as a side note (and as a result of being slightly disappointed with the eastern shores of the Salton Sea), we decided to find Slab City while we were out in the area. While what we found there was pretty great - and I'll write more about that later - the true treasure and discovery for us was Salvation Mountain, a beacon of ...well, of something, that sits just before you enter Slab City.
It was here that Ian and I came face to face with death.
The mountain is some kind of crazy folk art built by a man named Leonard Knight. Mr. Knight was not on the premises when we arrived, nor was anyone else as far as we could see. But a sign invited us in, so we parked the car by the roadside and crossed the small desert trench to make our way over to the mountain.
It looks an awful lot like a giant pile of play-doh with various paeans to Jesus and the Bible. There was paint and hay strewn about everywhere, as Mr. Knight appears to be working on seventeen different parts of the mountain at once.
The most impressive part of the mountain, though, was a smaller hill off to the side, about 30 feet tall and completely manmade. It's essentially constructed of hay bales and car doors painted over, propped up by branches and sticks. There's a small network of caves built in this mountain (this is where Ian and I narrowly escaped the fierce, ferocious barking puppy), and a number of smaller memorials to Jesus painted into the walls.
It's a truly remarkable place, especially considering that the entire community of Slab City, including Leonard Knight and his Salvation Mountain, are squatting on land that isn't theirs, that could be taken from them at any moment.
Posted by starlen at 09:16 PM | Comments (0)
June 17, 2005
Links
- Halliburton to build new $30 mln Guantanamo jail
Good to see the administration is giving serious thought to the objections over Guantanamo's very existence. - Kodak to Discontinue Black-and-White Photo Paper
- Texas Governor Signs Abortion Bill in an evangelical school gymnasium.
Maybe this will create more opportunities to imprison teenaged minorities to life sentences. - On the Monster Engine, Dave Devries makes paintings of children's drawings. Here's an interview with one of those kids.
- Look, if you're going to have multiple wives, you don't want to have to compete with your sons and his friends.
- Fangoria
These are the magazines I spent my childhood reading, from about seven years on. Then my uncle hooked me up with a treasure trove of back issues. - The State Machine
A dynamic visualization of the relationship between U.S. Senators and different sources of campaign funding.
Posted by starlen at 04:54 PM | Comments (0)
Tijuana Escapades... in Wax!
I don't go to Tijuana often. I don't drink, I'm not on the lookout for cheap prescription drugs, and I've long since lost my fascination with ceramic skulls and Indiana Jones bullwhips that I had when I was 9, when my parents first trekked me across the border.
But when I do have occasion to go, as I did recently, I typically have two objectives:
- Pick up Lucha Libre masks
- Go to the Tijuana Wax Museum
The Tijuana Wax Museum is one of the finest institutions known to man.
I have a sneaking suspicion that their figures are cast-offs from other museums, due to the haphazard, random nature of who's in there, where they're placed, and the general, er, quality of the figures. It's gotten better in the six years since I went - I could've sworn Wesley Snipes used to be next to Gorbachev, which wasn't the case this last time - but here's the kicker: It's a buck-fifty. Deal.
To give you some perspective on just how hot a deal that is, the Hollywood Wax Museums in Hollywood and Branson, MO (what?) offer on their site a web promotion for $2 off admission - and that coupon expired SIX YEARS AGO. If the Tijuana Wax Museum offered that deal, they'd be giving you two quarters back (which you could then use to buy a beer or something while you're down there).
Maybe the Hollywood WM's figures are as, shall we say, enigmatic, as the Tijuana's WM. I wouldn't know - I'm not throwing down $12 to find out. Not when this greatness exists down south.
Don't just take my word for it: Let the photos speak for themselves. And while you're at it, tell me how quickly you can figure out who some of these people are.
Posted by starlen at 03:09 AM | Comments (1)
Links
- Hospital: An outdated, outmoded web project I did for a class sometime ago.
- Scientology Scares Me.
Be sure to scroll down for the Nightline clip. It's long and the video is of poor quality, but it's fascinating.
Posted by starlen at 02:08 AM | Comments (0)
June 15, 2005
Introducing. . .
. . .my first post.
I had been intending to start a blog for some time now, but it, like most things I assume I'll do, kept getting pushed off. Being at SXSWi this last year provided a much needed kick of encouragement, in the forms of Michael, Cinnamon, Andrew, Alison, Leonard, Sandy, and many others.
Further, of course, I owe Ryan and Sam for stealing from them (both time and bits of code). Eventually, as I get a bit better at CSS and designing, we should see less of their direct influences (nice date widget, ryan) here, for this blog is constantly in beta.
Feedback's appreciated.
Posted by starlen at 04:02 AM | Comments (0)
