As I scanned the New York Times Magazine last night I noticed this piece about the bearded comedian Zach Galifianakis sandwiched in between the Bill Clinton Article and the design review. Galifianakis’ eccentric, absurdest comedic style has made him somewhat of a YouTube celeb – which he’s now taking it to big screen, co-staring in the movie ”The Hangover.”
So what is this clip above? Galifianakis along with collaborators Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim were commissioned by Absolut Vodka to make some web shorts. From the looks of it, the team had some serious creative freedom.
Of all the Galifianakis clips, gags and sketches currently in Internet orbit, none have done more to cement his reputation as a leader of the comic avant-garde, curiously enough, than a series of three ads in 2008 for Absolut vodka. “This advertising firm from Sweden called me out of the blue and asked me to do an ad,” Galifianakis said. “The one request they had was to not make it look too ’80s, since Absolut is perceived as kind of an ’80s brand.” He paused there for a moment, clearly savoring the memory. “That’s what gave us the idea to make the skits a kind of homage to ‘The Golden Girls.’ ”
Gd.
Make the jump for installment two and three. Read More »
Sorry, I meant, Influenza A virus, subtype H1N1. I wouldn’t want people to get the wrong idea and see the price of pork bellies fall any further.
Anyway, I’ve been traveling quite a bit these days (most recently to the lovely state of Michigan) and I can’t believe how many people I’ve seen wearing those protective masks with the little rubber bands wrapped around their ears. Frankly, I think it’s all a bit ridiculous. I mean, haven’t they been following the news? It’s just the friggin’ flu. Seriously, get yourself some CleanWell and stock up on Emergen-C if your really worried.
Regardless, thanks to industrious designers, like Irina Block here, perhaps a few of the hysterical germaphobes will don a mask with a big piggy snout, gigantic kissy lips, or even a manly, fearsome beard.
At least that way the rest of us can have a good laugh.
Mat Weddle’s version of “Hey Ya” is perfect for a wet and wooly Tuesday morning. It’s also a post that I’ve pulled from our “Rainy Day Fund” as the FTB crew has all been too busy tryin’ to make a dollar out of a nickel and a dime. Seriously though, this song makes me so f-ing happy. The fact that this Mennonite Hillbilly-lookin’ dude can flip Outkast like this, is enough to lift the worries right off of my shoulders - carried away by some chubby bearded cherubs. So, if you’re starting off your morning with a mini hate-fest on mother nature for the rain, just remember, “What’s cooler than being cool?” Yes, “ICE COLD,” so cool the hate and let Tuesday do it’s thing. Fine Art Friday is just around the corner.
After the listless loss by the Warriors on Saturday, Meschery and I switched over to the Blazers game against Memphis. I had watched them on TNT on Thursday against the Suns too. And I noticed something: they’re growing playoff beards.
Yes, the entire team is bearding up. Cheryl Miller confirmed it by flirting with Brandon Roy and scratching his man moss. Now, there’s really no reason not to embrace this team. They play ball unselfishly and with gusto. They know their roles and play as a unit. And they seem like decent, bearded folk.
After an emergency staff meeting over a game of 21 at the Y, it is official. FTB unanimously endorses the Portland Trail Blazers as our team of record for the duration of the NBA Playoffs. Our mole in the Rose Garden has been notified. This does not come without a parallel observation. The Dubs are tanking and it is hard to watch.
Saturday was the tipping point. Warm weather in The Bay. Teriyaki chicken wings on the grill. Dubs game on the tube. And I’m wearing my “We Believe” Western Conference Semifinals shirt from the night of The Dunk. It didn’t take long to realize how far the team has fallen and how shockingly fast it has occurred. Two years ago, there would have been ten people crowded into my living room to watch the game. This night, three. But why the Blazers? Read More »
It was bittersweet seeing BD last night. My ticket benefactor, Yuri, and I kept remarking that during timeouts Boom Dizzle was walking over to the wrong bench. At least it looked like the wrong bench to us.
After what was apparently a warm reception, the crowd took to booing (or perhaps they were yelling “booooom”) every time Baron had the ball in his hands. Frankly, I thought all of the booing was silly. Al got it too when he was here, but I think he earned his a bit more, asking publicly to be traded.
But Baron, he wanted to stay. He loved being loved in the Bay. Even worked on his karma to get his contract matters in order. But the Warriors just couldn’t come correct.
At one point I turned to a neighbor who was booing loudly during some Baron Davis free throws and asked, “What are you booing at? Yourself”? That’s kinda’ how I interpreted it. Self hate.
In the end, the Dubs won the game. Handily. Both Monta and Baron had banner games, with almost identical box scores. 29 points, 5 rebounds and 6 and 7 assists. I just kept thinking they should be playing together. That was the plan, Right? The best back court in the NBA since, well, Baron and JR. Certainly it would have been better then “oil and water”. Blah!
Enough of this. Let’s discuss the picture above. The image, snapped by Yuri at the halftime shoot around, is most auspicious. Baron sauntered over to a couple of well-to-do silver hair gentleman sitting courtside and engaged in a few minutes of lively banter. All while displaying various dribbling techniques. I quickly dubbed the duo “CEO of this.com and Chairman of that.com”.
“It’s definitely like a homecoming,” Davis said last week, anticipating his return to Oakland. “A lot of memories are there, and the adrenaline is going to be circulating. It’ll be good to see a lot of familiar faces in the stands.”
Familiar faces indeed. Yuri and I’s conjecture was that Baron (or as he’s known in Scrilla-con Valley, “iBoom”) was getting a little business advice form his NorCal tech-savvy brethren. Perhaps he was even lining up the next round of VC funding for his own social network play, IBeatYou.com.
With not much else going his way in Oakland last night, I certainly hope so.
What Jon Stewart did to Jim Cramer and CNBC, Berkeley author Michael Lewis has done to the entire nation of Iceland in his latest article for Vanity Fair magazine. One good thing to come out of the financial crisis is the entertainment offered up in watching people, companies, and now entire countries getting put on Global Economic Downturn Blast. In the case of Iceland, not only does Lewis portray Icelanders (well actually just Icelandic men) as inbred, naive, sexist, pushy, and reckless fisherman who had no business thinking they could get into the business of investment banking, but he also outed them as believers in elves. Yes, those elves. Mutha-f-ing Ice Elves! Apparently, in Iceland, they’re called “the hidden people.” Maybe they’re “hidden” because they don’t, you know, exist. Just like all that money the Icelanders invested.
With their banking industry eviscerated and world fishing stocks low, Icelanders are now staking their future on novelty winter wear. I’ve written about the Beard Cap before on this blog back when it was an emerging market, but now it’s gone mainstream, and beard hats are the new US fashion craze. One company “Beard Head” sells four different flavor of beard hat, “Pirate,” “Grandpa,” “Lumberjack,” and “Viking,” and they have a snowboard promotional tie-in. The beard hat phenomena is not a bubble according to many economists. Said one, “Basically, as long as Icelanders don’t sell each other beard hats for five billion dollars, the beard hat economy will remain stable.” So, if you feel sorry for the people of Iceland (and after reading Michael Lewis’s article, it’s hard to imagine you would) go out and buy a beard hat. It might be the only thing keeping their economy afloat. Those Bjork action figures aren’t quite selling like they used to.
This week might kind of suck. Just a little heads up. I could see it coming though. Friday, I took a call from a certain columnist from the LA Times. He was calling about Baron Davis. And what he meant to the Golden State Warriors. And how this season had unfolded for both. As it turned out I didn’t burn any of my 15 minutes of fame in his column, but he did an admirable job of correctly capturing the disappointment that binds us still.
Then came the Suns.
Jason Richardson returned to Golden State to score a season-high 31. Matt Barnes was back too. He had 20 points and a season-high 11 assists. One was the signature play of the game, on an alley-oop to JR. This, on the way to the Phoenix Suns scoring 154 points. As they coasted to victory.
But no. That’s not enough. More pain.
The utter meltdown of the Warriors. It was almost enough to turn me off of my tortilla soup. Captain Jack went back into “Crazy Eyez” mode and got thrown out. And since he’s now over the league-mandated limit for technical fouls, he’s probably gonna have to sit out on Tuesday when the Clippers are in town. And finally, there’s Don Nelson. “Crazy” has been his signature in a good way for decades. Tonight, he was also tossed. And with his manic “opt out or face a trade” conversation with a mostly-silent Jamal Crawford making news all week, his crazy is starting to get a little grating too.
But okay, that game is now in the past. Just another shotgun-blasted mile marker on the lonesome highway of the 2008-2009 season. But then there’s Tuesday. The long-awaited (at least in this corner of the Internet) return of the swagger that got away: Baron Davis. Tonight, he mustered precisely the sort of leadership that we all remember so fondly in an improbable Clippers win over New Jersey. The win was so improbable that I had actually switched off NBA League Pass for traditional television after Vince Carter drained what seemed to be a dagger three. As it turned out, Boom calmly hit two free throws and then cracked off the dime for the winning three after an intentional foul.
Guess what? He wants to prove something. Read More »
Okay, I know Mr. West’s entourage (fig 1) were going big for Paris Fashion week, but dang. When was that last time tight-ass leopard leggings with cowboy boots was a righteous look in the world of Hip Hop fashion?
I’m not exactly sure, but I have a feeling Grand Master Flash (fig 2) and his extra Furious Five would know. Seriously, a gold lamé tasseled coat-cape thingy, bright yellow Speedos (sans pants), white and gold cowboy boots, topped off with a pith helmet? WTF?!
Actually, Kanye’s gear is alright, and same with his pea-coated homie rocking the orange fedora. Regardless, I’m sure those LV cases are filled with whatever they’ve been smoking. Welcome to the good life.
Gd.
Read Kayne’s blog to keep yourself fashion forward or you can make the jump and lament the lamé.
I don’t know this Ash dude that created this mix for the MP3 blog, “Disco Horror,” but man, they must have been digging so deep in the crate they probably have some form of DJ Carpal Tunnel. Actually, “DJ Carpal Tunnel” isn’t a bad DJ name (”Let me get a ‘yes, yes y’all.’ This is DJ Carpal Tunnel on the ones and twos - owwwwwwww!) It takes a certain commitment to rumpshaking to find such obscure disco cuts from artists you’ve never heard of, released on labels probably run out of someone’s basement (Rusty’s Dusty Disco anyone?). Now, I’m not exactly sure why this is titled “Fear The Beard Mix” unless DJ Carpal Tunnel is a secret fan of the blog. Or maybe it’s because he spent so long looking for these songs and making this mix, he had a full-on scruffy by the time he was done. Whatever the reason, I’m glad he did because otherwise my homie, Sorcerer (another connoisseur of musica obscura), wouldn’t have sent it my way, and now I’m going to be slapping this all weekend, owwwwww!
Okay, I don’t know what to say about this. I think it’s bumming me out. This is like every bearded hipster’s wet dream, some cute ukelele-playing chick singing in her bedroom about how much she loves beards. Sorry to burst your bubble bearded dude, but Ukelele-girl is not going to sleep with you just because you have a face rug. It’s a facade. This is the type of chick who thinks hobos are cute. She probably carves little hobos out of soap, or knits baby hobo slippers and sells them on Etsy. But is she going to make out with a hobo? I don’t think so.
I know when many of us in the FTB crew decided to grow beards last year during The Dubs playoff push, many of our significant others weren’t feeling it - literally. Few ladies actually dig the full bearditude (unless they’re hockey fans or Hasidic or Hasidic Hockey fans), so that’s why I’m thinking this video is just a gimmick to get some dudes with beard-related blogs to write about it. The only way this video is any good is if Joaquin Phoenix comes in and drops sixteen bars, and then sticks his gum on her ukelele and walks off. Now, that would be worth watching.
