I hate the crazy frog!!!

So I don't know how many of you are familiar with the "Crazy frog" ringtone, but it's basically a bad Axel F mix accompanied by this bizzare video of this crappy cg "crazy frog" riding a missle. Yes, it's that inane. Now because of the way the music charts are put together ( total sales and airplay) This ringtone was actually the number one single in the uk for a while, and now is 10 on the italian single chart, it's genuinely annoying but for some reason these people love it. I can't figure it out for the life of me, but enough people are paying for this ringtone that it shows up on the MTV countdown!! In it's defense, the crazy frog is only the second most annoying song in the top 10 ( tanto^3 being the worst), but it's impossible to escape because every where you go on public transportation you hear it. At least it's mostly limited to the under 16 set.

Watch of the future ( if it were 1950)

So I'm a big fan of non standard watches, but this watch by nixon is extra sweet. If it were one third the price, I'd own one already. Afterall how cool is walnut inlay on a watch. I see a return to woodgrain in consumer electronics for that retro analog feel chic, who's with me!!

My old Flat in Rome

Apt Terrace 1
Originally uploaded by hkarmark.

So I've been promising pics of my old flat in Rome for a long time. Here's a shot of the terrace and if you click through you can get to my flickr for other shots of the place. With any luck I'll be back there from jan to june. This flat is ridiculous: antique furniture, statues on the terrace, over 80 paintings and prints in gilded frames (there were paintings in the walk-in closet!!). I figured I couldn't live in rome and pass up a chance at a place like this, afterall the location is also amazing.

The flat is outfitted like this because the owner is an art historian who, I guess, had always wanted to live in a 17th century palace. I gotta tell you guys, he did a pretty good job of recreating the experience. You'd really have to see this thing in person to believe it.

Live8Roma

Live8Roma002
Originally uploaded by hkarmark.

One of many pics I snapped at Live8 rome ( A good concert despite Duran Duran bailing from the lineup)

Marketing, memes, and good weekend reads

So thanks to my exceptionally helpful sis, over the past week I've gone through four fast fun reads (or fictional folios, in case, like me, you can't let the silly alliteration slip by) :

• Gaiman and Pratchett- "Good Omens": a Light funny Douglas Adams-esque book about the apocalypse
  
• James Maxey- "Nobody gets the girl": a novel in a very comic book style that's fun and a quick read with a predictable ( thanks to the publisher's note) twist at the end where we're supposed to question who are really the "good and "evil" characters
• Jim Munroe- "Angry Young Spaceman": A guy's trip offworld to teach English with a lot of content about the spread of culture through marketing and the exploitation of perceptions to fuel/exploit subcultures. You can definitely feel munroe's adbusters pedigree in his writing, but it's not over the top, and the book's a great read ( though not as good as his "Everyone in Silico")
• Max(x) Barry- "Jennifer Government": Heaviest of the lot in terms of mood but really the best of the bunch. It's got action, romance, marketing, explicit protest against evil megacorps, the jimmy stewart everyman schmo, and a gun-toting female lead reminiscent of a gibson razorgirl. I had a lot of fun with this one and I definitely like it's heavier social focus than other corporate controlled dystopian future views like gibson, stephenson, and p.k. dick.

The last three of these books all chronicled some serious spin ranging from controlling world understanding of catastrophic events to deciding what's cool for teenagers to wear. So, once again I've been thinking about what makes an idea or trend sticky and helps it get passed on. It's one thing to target a specific person to get them to feel strongly about something, but it's always impressed me how some sets of ideas can be so sticky that they spawn subcultures, and often bleed into the mainstream view of what's cool.

I find myself straddling the line on whether I'd like to be part of the machine manipulating and fueling these groups, or whether I'll join one that thinks of itself as fighting the trend. Ya know, engage in some culture jamming, wear antibrand clothing, buy fair trade goods, and maybe organize support for small to mid size businesses in developing markets ( what better way to hit coke or nike than help fund a co-op of locally strong brands with a joint production and distribution infrastructure).

This is of course all academic now but I've been jotting done on the post-it board again ( check the orange and red notes) and maybe a company will form out of some of this 5 years from now, or maybe I'll just become a more active blogger