Favorite Music Video of 2007

Dave Gahan's "Kingdom"

a real christmas song.

good stuff. a song for the holidays that sums up and sends up the season in a really sincere but totally postmodern way.

his hot-ASSSS video

IT'S ALIVE!!!

this movie will destroy me in all the best ways...

photoblogginggreycat

my old friend donna from high school has a great photo blog at http://photoblogginggreycat.blogspot.com/
she's not "old" as much as she's just a friend from the past...
she's actually still quite lovely...
pretty hot, really.

check it out.

It's Crabby, bitches.

So...
A while back, during the Chris Crocker/Britney Spears "Leave her alone!" phenomenon, I made a couple parody videos. One of them has been viewed now over 450,000 times. It's hilarious to me. I mean, I understand why they're funny. But to think, of all the plays, films, songs, and performances I have truly committed myself to and focused intense energy on over the years, this video has been the most watched thing I've ever done.
You tube really is something...



The other, less popular video:



For more youtube fun, go to http://www.youtube.com/crizzab74

Animal Rescue Site

Hi, all you animal lovers. This is pretty simple... Please tell ten friends to tell ten more friends today! The Animal Rescue Site is having trouble getting enough people to click on it daily to meet their quota of getting free food donated every day to abused and neglected animals.
http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
It takes less than a minute (How about 20 seconds) to go to their site and click on the purple box "fund food for animals" for free. This doesn't cost you a thing.

Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate food to abandoned/neglected animals in exchange for advertising.

Here's the web site! Pass it along to people you know.

http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com

where's the green spice?

The Spice Girls new single "Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)" is about how their friendships have endured over the years, in spite of the fights, failures and scandals. In the video, they writhe around in lingerie on fur rugs and dry-hump cold , angular modern furniture. With the exception of one horribly-staged shot designed to imply hot, lesbian action, the girls seem utterly unaware of each other and the very meaning of the song they're singing. The clip is as detatched from the song as America is from David Beckham.



I wonder if the visionary behind this clip is the same brainiac who decided not only to fly them to each of their tour locations in a private jet, but advertise it. In one of the boldest anti-environmentalist displays in recent memory, Virgin Records (once owned by cultural visionary and all-around green guy Richard Branson) is donating one Lear jet for each girl and her respective camp of kids, nannies, stylists, and egos.

According to Alex Lambie, who runs a website that helps consumers compare energy options, the combined flights will create nearly 10,500 tons of carbon dioxide. Granted, many stars have private jets, but you'd think these five girls would have at least been consciencious enough to fly together in one plane. These are Lear Jets afterall- flying palaces basically. If the girls can't get along for a few hours with that many square feet to escape from each other in, they've got problems that run deeper than anything they've sung about on either of their soul-baring, revolutionary folk albums.

Seriously, who's managing these girls? Upon their return to London last week, a plane that Virgin dedicated to them was unveiled. It's called Spice One, a name you might be familiar with if you're a fan of hardcore gangsta rap. The MC released albums in the nineties containing hits with names like "AmeriKKKa's Nightmare," "Dyin' 2 Ball," ""Fucked in the Game," "What in The Fuck" and "I'm the Fucking Murderer."
With all this sensible, well-managed behavior, you gotta wonder why they weren't invited to LiveEarth.

s-h-o-p-p-i-n-g

So, this Holiday Season I've found myself buying a lot of stuff. I'm not a crazy consumer because well, I'm generally poor. But I've got a big list this year and several gift cards for my birthday to redeem.

One practical thing that I recently needed was a water filter. So I figured the best place to find one was Bed, Bath, and Beyond. It was a terrifying and vulgar place with horrible lighting. The "Beyond" part is like an outer ring of hell designed to make you feel really bad about the state of contemporary man. But the filter was cheap and made by a socially-responsible company... I think.

Between trying to figure out what purchases are socially responsible and dealing with the mania of actually going to the store, I'm tempted to just make everyone mix cd's. But I don't think my mom would really enjoy the new Timbaland. And I can't see my mom washing dishes humming along to Sigur Ros.
So I looked into it and found some some ways to shop responsibly with less headache.

1. What's with all the stuff, anyways? Why not buy someone the gift of an experience? Take someone to dinner, a play, or a movie. Plan it right, and the memory will last longer than whatever disposable thing you get.

2. Don't drive all over town buying stuff at a lot of stores. Try and find as many things as you can online through one supplier you trust. And select ground shipping- it's six times more efficient than overnight air shipping which means less pollution.

3. CD's are to the new millennium what cassettes were to the nineties- DEAD! Almost everyone's got an mp3 player now. So why buy someone a CD that they'll burn to their Ipod and then store away until it ends up in a landfill? Apple has just introduced a higher quality mp3 through it's ITunes Plus. (And the new shuffles are only 79 bucks. So if you know some poor, unfortunate shlub with no mp3 player, buy them one!)

4. etsy.com is a great place to shop for handmade things from suppliers and craftspeople from around the globe- clothes, jewelry, toys, art...You name it, it's there. And they have a great forum where you can connect with other buyers for advice and information.

5. If you're big on online shopping, what do you need the catalogues for? The websites will be more up-to-date with more recent sale prices. So go to Catalogchoice.org and cut down on the pollution and clutter. The service lets you select the catalogs you don't want to receive and within a couple of months, your mailbox will be empty of unwanted catalogs.

There's plenty of advice over at www.itsyournature.org & www.simplesteps.org. They've also got some pretty smart ideas about holiday food buying, energy-efficient holiday lighting, and conserving energy in the kitchen cooking all those casseroles, Jell-o molds and gingerbread men. Have a very Merry whatever you have, but please... if you must go to Bed, Bath, and Beyond, drop a Xanax first.

office of the living dead

here are some of the new environmental spots i've finished with NRDC's itsyournature.org. they star jack perry, margo passalaqua, josh matthews, and yours truly. i wrote them with lucas longacre, who also directed them. kelly cox was at the helm of the project and we couldn't have done it all without her trusty bro jacob cox.







Make sure you check out www.itsyournature.org for more great videos.

I hate Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has unveiled an environmental plan to boost energy efficiency, cut down on waste and go green. Or "greener" at least. Wal-Mart Chief Executive Lee Scott said the world’s largest retailer wants to be a “good steward for the environment.” They also want to use only renewable energy and eventually produce zero waste.

I've been down on Wal-Mart for a long time- the awful lighting, the shrieking PA system, those horrible dirty vests that employees are forced to wear two sizes too large for them. I'm always worried I'm going to be crushed and paralyzed by one of those ever-falling prices. I could sue them and be rich, but if they were as sneaky and cheap with me as they are their employees, I'd end up with no health care in a lawn chair with roller skates strapped to the bottom of it. Don't get me wrong. This promised "greening" of Wal-Mart makes me happy. But the proof is in the pudding and until I see it, I 'll remain suspicious. Make sure you check out this site:

http://www.walmartmovie.com/

It's the official site for a documentary by Robert Greenwald called "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price." He also directed another ace doc called "Outfoxed," about "how media empires, led by Rupert Murdoch's Fox News, have been running a "race to the bottom" in television news. This film provides an in-depth look at Fox News and the dangers of ever-enlarging corporations taking control of the public's right to know." The Walmartmovie.com site is full of resources for the Wal-Mart lover/hater in you. Well... maybe just the hater.
As far as hating Wal-Mart goes, nobody beats poor Betty Butterfield. Just going there sends her into frantic dithers.

Retro Seduction

Damn! Who knew he could sing?
Or that his crazy vocoder could sing?
This is the best thing Snoop's done in ages. And the video is so painstakingly crafted to look old school. It's almost too good.

What's That Smell?

"...when you smell a smell it's not really a smell, it's a part of the object that has come off of it -- molecules. So when you smell something bad, it's like in a way you're eating it. This is why you should not really smell things, in the same way that you don't eat everything in the world around you - because as a smell, it gets inside of you. So the next time you go into the bathroom after someone else has been there, remember what kinds of molecules you are in fact eating."

That's from my favorite scene in Ang Lee's "The Ice Storm," in which a very young and thoughtful Elijah Wood stands in front of his class to deliver a report about olfactory senses. As funny as the monologue is, the kid's really on to something.

NRDC has found that more than a dozen common household air fresheners contain chemicals that may affect hormones and reproductive development, particularly in babies. It seems the federal government doesn't test air fresheners for safety and the manufacturers aren't required to meet any specific safety standards.
Say what?

“More than anything, our research highlights cracks in our safety system,” said Dr. Gina Solomon, NRDC senior scientist. “There are too many products on the shelves that we assume are safe, but have never even been tested.”

Only two of the fourteen odor-ific brands tested, Febreze Air Effects and Renuzit Subtle Effects, contained no detectable levels of a hormone-disrupting chemical called phthalate. (Try saying it aloud without sounding like Daffy Duck.) None of the products listed phthalates as ingredients and several are actually marketed as “all-natural” and “unscented.” (You know- Natural, as in "Come into my kitchen. It smells like Cranberry-mango-winter-breeze"-natural.)

The three with the highest level of phthalates were Walgreens Air Freshener, Walgreens Scented Bouquet, and Ozium Glycolized Air Sanitizer. These phthalates (say it three times fast) pose the greatest risk over long term repeated exposure. This exposure can can affect testosterone levels and lead to reproductive abnormalities, including abnormal genitalia and reduced sperm production. So if your kids spend too much time in the den, which stinks to high heaven of "Vanilla-cinnamon-fresh linen-new car," it could mess up their unmentionables.

"Manufacturers are getting away with marketing products as ‘natural’ when they’re not, and that’s because no one is stopping them,” said Mae Wu, an attorney in NRDC’s health program. “Our research suggests this could be a widespread problem in a booming industry that – so far – has been allowed to do what it wants.”

NRDC recommends that consumers who purchase air fresheners be selective and try to reduce home odors by improving home ventilation. That air freshener might make the bathroom smell sweet and cover the smell of your dirty sneakers, but why not open a window? Remember, when you smell a phthalate, part of that phthalate is inside you.

The scene in question is at 5:40. Funny stuff.

What Would Jesus Watch?

You should really check out the new "What Would Jesus Buy?" It's a documentary by Morgan Spurlock, who made the great "Supersize Me" and the even greater TV series "30 Days." It's part exploration on the holidays and consumerism/part documentary about Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping. The film dabbles its feet in some heavy issues and never really beats you over the head with statistics and disturbing sweatshop footage. It's quite entertaining and has some really engaging parts. At one point, the crew motivates a group of 3 thirteen year-old girls to contact the companies who manufacture their favorite clothes to inquire about their policies and production. Its an amazing thing seeing these giddy teenagers get excited about finding out the answers to questions they never realized they wanted answered. I hope the film makes some people think that way.



The release is very limited, but you can check the website to see if it's playing in your area code.

http://wwjbmovie.com/

Part of the promotion for the film, in conjunction with www.itsyournature.org, was to get people to make their own videos discussing how they would attempt to celebrate a less materialistic holiday. People made some wonderful videos about handmade gifts, holiday memories, and their favorite charities.
I am a smart ass though...

all i want for christmas

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Dove: Is Coverage Revealing?

Dove has launched this great ad campaign to directly address the beauty industry's role in making girls and women feel bad about themselves. I really like them and the company's getting a really positive response.



But this day in age, when you pat someone on the back, someone else will slap them in the face. And not always undeservedly. Many folks saw these ads and were bothered that people were labeling Dove a socially responsible company when it was thought that they were still testing on animals. But were they?
I've included a response to the question from Unilever US who runs Dove below:

"This is in response to your inquiry regarding our policy on animal
testing. Unilever understands and shares your concern about this most
important and complex matter. We are committed to the elimination of
animal testing for our business and recently we have made significant
progress towards meeting this challenge.

Our position has historically been that we do not test any finished home
or personal care product on animals, except where required by government
regulation. However, as part of our ongoing commitment to eliminate
animal testing, we recently reviewed these specific government
regulations against the products we manufacture and market. During this
review it became clear to us, that the only product category that
required testing was oral care. However, as you may have heard,
Unilever no longer manufactures oral care products. This means that we
can now definitively state that Unilever does not test home or personal
care products, including toothpaste, on animals."

What a strange, uh... answer?
The long and short of it is "Yes," they do test on animals. Did you miss the clue? The company is very careful to say that do not test "finished" products on animals. Well, why would they? If it's finished I guess they've already figured out it won't burn your retinas out. As for the oral products, I guess it's a good thing they don't make toothpaste anymore or they'd be as screwed as the rabbits.

Many people were offended that the company would launch a campaign so definitively feminist at the same time as they were producing the men's fragrance "Axe." In the "Axe" cologne commercials a man is generally attacked at a store or in a parking lot by a pack of near-rabid women whose insatiable blood-lust can only be quenched by smelling the five dollar, Walmart-bought stink on his neck.
(It comes in a pump for crying out loud.)



But does any of this take away from the company's honest attempt to address a growing problem with body-issues and anxiety? Does it make it any less brave in a commercial landscape where girls in bikinis are used to sell cars and Kiera Knightley gets nominated for awards instead of checked into a clinic? Is the life of an animal more important than a girl's self esteem?

In the nineties, Levi's made a decision to relocate 2 percent of its manufacturing to the U.S. because it was good American finances and would be produced in a more organic, less chemical saturated way. But Levi's tried to keep it a secret because they feared it would make their customers question the other 98 percent of it's products. To what extent were they onto something?

Has Dove's decision to take a step toward socially responsible advertising opened up the business to new criticism? Could this bold new branding actually hurt Dove? I think it's great when the populous questions the powers that be. I just hope we keep in mind that even though there are bad guys, there are also worse guys. Let's pick on them first and then constructively help the ones who are at least trying to change.