Abject Lessen, Object Lesson

DISASTER!!!

2009-07-06T11:30:00.001-07:00

Invisible Rope Prank

2009-06-18T21:11:00.000-07:00

Don't Watch If You Have a History of Heart Disease

2009-01-28T20:50:00.000-08:00

wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo.

I have said that I would only sky dive if I was jumping in tandem with someone I was willing to die with (cause I'm not going out alone). Watching the video of these base jumpers got my heart racing...I have to say I envy the experience, though would never want to take such an extreme leap of faith. Beautiful! Amazing! Certifiable!

Doggystyle...

2009-01-28T15:38:00.000-08:00

Durex Condoms with a brilliant ad, although I have to wonder if it will sell any condoms. What is most curious to me is how the condom balloon dogs are gendered via color. Clearly a pink dog must be female and a blue dog must be male. So, the orange dog? I think I need an anthropologist to translate...BH, do you have any thoughts? Regardless, I hope you enjoy!

Wassup! 8 Years Later

2008-10-27T07:27:00.000-07:00

Nary a Budweiser in sight, and maybe the most brilliant in their series of advertisements, the Wassup guys return eight years later to give us an update on their lives...

So "True!"

McCain Bashing

2008-10-06T10:40:00.000-07:00

Rolling Stone has published a rather inflammatory story about John McCain. With that beautiful cover photo of Barack Obama a few months ago that depicts him as both human and Presidential (lapel pin and all), it is pretty clear that Rolling Stone has a partisan bent to their reporting of electoral politics. But to call McCain a "spoiled brat" seems like it is going too far. Granted, because of his military career and POW experiences, McCain's political life has a Teflon-quality to it. It seems the lack of a frank accounting of McCain's military and political history has been a glaring hole in the election coverage, but with this article Rolling Stone has gone to the extreme. What do you think? Is this the swift-boating of John McCain?

Nuff Said...

2008-09-26T22:06:00.001-07:00

Paid for by the Jewish Council for Education and Research...

2008-09-26T11:28:00.000-07:00

Wow. Dustin, don't load this video on your work computer.

Just more evidence for why candidate Obama needs good inflammatory ads produced by independent organizations. Or not. From JCER:

Since early in 2007, Jews have been the target of a rumor campaign, intended to spread misinformation and sow mistrust. Many Jews, with the best of intentions, forwarded these emails to others in their networks. These rumors eventually moved from email to one-on-one communications among friends and family. The cumulative effect of these dirty tricks has been to leave many in the Jewish community angry and confused, while some are fearful that the Democratic nominee and possibly the next President does not have their interests at heart.

What I'm confused about is whether this video accomplishes their goal of countering attempts by the right to foster fears of "Obama is Muslim," or whatever rumor this video tries to correct for...like African Americans dying young? That said, the idea of "The Great Schlep" is beautiful and wrong. Brong! What can I say, Sarah Silverman = non-problematic social commentary. Always and ever will be.

Enjoy!

Islam is the new black...

2008-09-22T15:14:00.000-07:00

Check out Nicholas Kristof's New York Times article on how people seem uncomfortable rejecting Obama because of his race, so instead they "otherize" him based on fictitious claims about his religious heritage. Of course we knew this already, but Kristof's op-ed piece is a concise, cogent essay that gets to the heart of the matter. I like that New Yorker cover more and more...

Also on the matter of religion and politics, Jon Stewart was chatting with Tony Blair recently on the Daily Show. Blair, who is about to begin teaching a course on religion and globalization, cited the following statistic: that when asked "how important is religion to you," 65% of American said "very important" compared to 35% of British, compared to 97% of Pakistanis. So when it comes to religiosity we're somewhere right between Pakistan and Britain (again, not surprising, but always nice to see where we rank). As my colleague at The Switchman recently noted, 45% of republicans, and 40% of democrats! do not know that candidate Obama identifies as Christian. Of Blair's 65% of Americans (presumably mostly Christian), it seems some large proportion don't really know what Obama's religious affiliation is. But McCain, as a white all-American POW candidate, it is safe to assume he's a good wholesome Christian right? Especially when he picks Palin as his running mate. God help us, either willful ignorance, or racism by proxy, might cost Obama the election.

Jab it out!

Target Women: Cleaning

2008-09-19T20:13:00.001-07:00

I'm totally addicted to Sarah Haskin's web series "Target Women." The show picks apart advertising aimed at women, revealing the wildly inappropriate, hysterical, and sexist subtext running throughout. This weeks theme (and maybe her best contribution yet) is on cleaning products. Awesome.