Skype on my iPhone. Holy moly.
I’ve been dying for this since I first got my hands on an iPhone and now it’s here. I just installed it and so far it looks tight as all heck. That said, I only tested it with Tara who was sitting next to me in bed at the time so I can’t say for sure how robust it is yet but I expect to try it out in more detail tomorrow. I want to try putting it on my iPod Touch as well and see if it turns that into a communication device which would totally own. Also, I can now make international calls for free with my iPhone which allows me to give AT&T a giant middle finger while laughing all the way to the bank. Well not really but you know what I mean.
links for 2009-03-27
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The global economic crisis isn't about money – it's about power. How Wall Street insiders are using the bailout to stage a revolution
Glen E Friedman X Shepard Fairey X Bad Brains
I met Glen E Friedman in ’97 while working on ‘The Omega Sessions‘ record. The fact that I was designing a Bad Brains record was pretty much a dream come true all by itself, but I knew the only option for a cover photo was something that Glen shot. His book Fuck You Heroes had come out a few years earlier and I’d been blown away to learn that all these photos that had inspired me so much growing up were all taken by the same person.
I talked Victory into it, and set out to find a contact for him the best way I could think of – I called Dischord. I expected them to take a message and maybe pass it on, instead they gave me his home phone number. I called and left a very timid message. Days later, at around 4 in the morning Glen called me back and I answered. “What are you doing awake at this time of day?” He asked. “Working” which is a pretty accurate reply anytime I’m asked that question. “Really? Well I was calling to tell you I wasn’t interested in working with that label because I asked around and people didn’t have good things to say, but if you are awake and working at this time of day I must have gotten bad info -let’s talk” And we did, repeatedly. Almost 12 years later I’ve worked with him countless times since then (including the opening exhibitions of both the Chicago and Los Angeles versions of sixspace) and I’m very proud and happy to call him one of my closest friends. Some people don’t like Glen because they say he’s too honest, this is one of my favorite things about him. I always know exactly where I stand and know that no matter what I ask him the answer will be exactly what he’s thinking. It’s a rare quality, but something I admire and aspire to.
I met Shepard Fairey around the same time – I fancied myself a hotshot designer with my fingers on the pulse of the cool art world and so naturally I had a subscription to Juxtapoz. While flipping through those early issues I found ads that Shepard was running for prints he was screening and selling. $15 for a print in a run of 100 seemed kind of expensive to me, but I always thought the Andre The Giant Has A Posse thing was amusing and as the Creative Director at Victory I was pulling in a cool $22K a year so I could afford to splurge on a few things I thought were worth supporting. I ordered a few prints every other month or so and would include a note and eventually Shepard and I started writing back and forth without the pretext of an order. When sixspace opened, Shepard mentioned he’d never been to Chicago which seemed like the perfect excuse to invite him out for an exhibition.
Shepard’s show “The Medium Is The Message” opened on the heals of Glen’s and we spent a lot of time talking about how, both of us being skaters who liked punk AND hip hop, Glen’s work was like the perfect storm of awesome. The week before his show opened he came to Chicago and slept on my couch and was attacked by my cat. We spent the nights driving around in borrowed cars listening to NWA and Bad Brains while putting up posters and flyers for the show. Many years later when I was laid off from Playboy.com he hired me at BLK/MRKT to do the web end of several campaigns and helped me get back on my feet here in LA. Like Glen, over the years Shepard has become one of my dear friends and someone I know I can always turn to for anything. Also like Glen, Shepard has his critics but having known him for all this time and seen him work I can say without any hesitation that he’s the most driven and hard working artist I’ve ever met in my life. And I think I know a lot of driven and hardworking artists. The guy has a work ethic unmatched by anyone I’ve ever met, and like Glen I’m inspired by what he does and try to pull little lessons from his approach into my own life all time.
Hopefully I don’t even need to explain how important Bad Brains are, if you are reading this you should be well aware already. Of course both Glen and Shepard know this and that’s why this collaboration between those two is about as close to perfect as it gets for me. Shepard and Glen worked together and picked out several of Glen’s photos that Shepard then based illustrations on creating the Bad Brains image to end all Bad Brains images. And then, through some kind of miracle or witchcraft got the entire original band to sign each and every one of them. Having worked with the band back on that record, I can’t even begin to describe to you how big of a feat that must have been. I actually can’t imagine a single piece of art hitting more magic spots for me than this – friends who I have unlimited respect for and a band that would easily be my trapped on a desert island soundtrack. I’m so happy to see this materialize.
The print goes on sale this Thursday, March 26th – if you want one I highly suggest grabbing it as soon as it’s released. It might be your only chance, and it will definitely be worth it. And always keep the PMA.
Changing the world in 5 easy steps – Go Vegan
[This is part one of the changing the world in 5 easy steps series]
When I originally thought of this series and was brain storming with people, going vegan was something I always suggested people could do on a personal level that would have a global impact. This was skoffed at by pretty much everyone who had never looked into it on their own, the folks who had whole hearted agreed. That alone was enough reason for me to make the #1 topic on the list, not only because I think it’s a viable example, but I actually think it’s the most impactful thing on the list. The thing is most of the stuff I’m talking about will take something bad and make it good, but this actually goes to the source and cuts out the bad all together. I’ll explain why shortly and provide you with some extensive links for more research if you so choose.
Now before I get much further into this I want to make it clear that the only thing I’m talking about in this example is how what you eat impacts the world you live in and choices to eat more (or less) of some things can have global repercussions. I’m not talking about if veganism is good for you (it is) or healthier than a meat based diet (it is), animal rights, or if people who think you need to eat lots of dairy products to be healthy are just buying into a dairy industry’s marketing ploy (they are). However, since I know there are a lot of people reading this who think humans can’t survive without cheese burgers washed down with an icy glass of milk, I’ll provide some links at the end on that as well for anyone who wants to read up on it. But really, I don’t want to spend too much time on that in this post, if it’s a interesting enough topic I’ll write more about it later but for this “change the world” series those reasons don’t really play into it too much.
