SnakSnak.com, I love snacks too much! (Entertainment!!)
I kind of can't believe I really started a snack review website. But I did, and its pretty awesome if I do say so. If you read this site much you my have heard me refer to myself as "The Snack Sultan" or "The Bodega Baller" or "The Corner Store King" - all in reference to my love, since a young boy, of snacks. I love junk food man, its constantly around me. So a while back I was like "Hmm, maybe I should start a blog about it." But I never got around to it until my friend Adam said he wanted to start a tech blog...which I thought was a "meh" idea, and told him he should help me with Snak Snak. The rest is history and probably a ton of cavities. Super fun to have a light-hearted, no-cool-guy-attitude, side project doing something you love. In this case, its eating and being very familiar with snacks. We've got some awesome/hilarious stuff planned for the site. SNACKS ON DECK!! Ha.
Blend all the scenes, every single one of them!! This is one of those classic juxtapositions - I love all the people who thought Gucci was super terrible find themselves thinking: "hmm, maybe I can get into it." Diplo summed it up best by saying Gucci never said he is anything he isn't, he's just enjoy himself and making music. We look at Baile Funk, for example, as this amazing sounding music from a far-off land - thus better or more "cultural" than what we have here state-side right? Thats what makes it fascinating right? I've always wondered what the creative kids in, say Paris, who don't speak much English, think of Gucci Mane. You know? Or some kid in Denmark. How we seeBaile Funk could be how they see Gucci Mane, you know? There is a weird, kind of intangible thing to msuic from other cultures where you can't understand what they're saying, etc. Anyway - thats the magic of Diplo, anything goes - his curation doesn't have a formula, its this beautifully messy collection of a zillion different styles of music from a zillion different cultures. Call me on it, who cares, but Gucci has this Willy Wonka approach to the entire "rap game" - super creative. What's seen maybe as cliche, the jewelry, the cars, etc, the bravado, etc, etc - he just does it better than anyone else. The old Bart Simpson chain??, perfect. And if you haven't seen the Miss Info interviews on youtube, they're super interesting. All this analytical stuff aside: BURR BURR!!! ***And yeah, its "nsfw"/offensive music to some, whatever.
I hope you're all calling me "late" on this post - mostly because I really hope you've all gotten familiar with Mr. Levi Maestro, and his SHOW (not blog!) known as Maestro Knows. I'm actually chilling at my favorite restaurant/bar right now eating some General Tso's chicken and having a Coors Light - wasting time on twitter, etc. And I wanted to throw up a quick post on what I'll go ahead and call a new phenomenon in this whole "niche culture" thing we participate in - yeah, I think his show is a bit of a phenomenon. Thing that struck me, first time I watched his show, was how nice he seemed/was. No cool guy attitude. This is so important to me!! Maestro is stoked to simply be doing what he wants to be doing that he can't be distracted by being "too cool". His show is a simple yet brilliant almost like point-of-view connection with people he finds super interesting and what they do on a day to day. Think of it as a travel show almost. And his quirky use of twitter to connect with people who dig what he's up to and build a personality/brand on-line beyond just his show. Its really in the details with what he's up to. He's really creating a pretty fantastic brand. Maestro and I actually had a chance to catch up in Chicago not too long ago - so yeah, ha, I got to verify all this in person. He's a cool dude, doing super cool stuff using the web/his creativity/vision and I'd place my bets that he's going to be up to some huge things in the near future. I think he's a great ambassador to "niche culture". If you haven't checked out his show yet - please do!! Stay tuned for more.
James Blagden & No Mas: Dock Ellis' no-hitter on LSD!!! (Entertainment!!)
James Blagden has been a friend of THE BRILLIANCE for a while now. We love his work - he's a super talented, super creative dude who also loves sports, which I personally really appreciate. Anyways, this is just amazing. The drawings, the animation, the story, the actual voiceover of Ellis from a radio interview he did before he passed away...The story goes that on June 12, 1970, Dock Ellis, pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates, pitched a no-hitter while completely out of his mind, tripping on LSD. I don't need to say much more than that, just watch the video. It's quite awesome. Created by James Blagden for No Mas NYC.
Red Bull Air Races! My goodness. (Entertainment!!)
A friend of mine just put me on to this, had never seen it before. It's kind of a like, Nascar 10x and in three dimensions, and more...beauty to it. And danger, my goodness. So I had no idea Red Bull actually has an action sports "think-tank" where they actually dream up new sports. Ha? It makes such perfect sense though, just watching this sport feels like drinking 2-3 Red Bulls. No joke. Writing anything trying to describe this sport doesn't really make sense - its best to watch it. But briefly, its small, extremely agile/fast, and apparently very simple prop-powered planes through a course with pylons known as air gates that are super small either completely horizontal, or at a perfect 90 degree angle known as "knife-edge". They seriously have about 3-4 meters on the side of each wine between these pylons and they're doing 250mph. If that wasn't enough, the races usually take place over open bodies of water, rivers, air-fields, or natural wonders...and usually about 25-50 feet off the ground. Seriously, just nuts to watch! I dig the kind of international feel of the sport and while super fast cars on a closed track can be (kind of) interesting - everyone, and I mean everyone's imagination is captured by airplanes and flight. This is confirmed by the 800,000+ people in attendance at the Barcelona race. Cha-ching for Red Bull. Video games, merchandise, licensing, movies, syndication to networks, etc, etc, etc. And, cool that Hulu has them to watch for free.
Objectified - the flick that I've been waiting to watch for...too long. From the guys who made a movie a fell asleep watching, Helvetica. Sorry, maybe I had mono that day - I just couldn't keep them peeled. Objectified on the other hand is awesome, as I hoped it would be. It's not nearly as niche a film - I think pretty much anyone could watch it and get inspired by the idea that everything we interact with, every single day, is designed - either amazingly well, poorly, or just meh. Johnny Ive's part was of course cool, his little giggle thing or whatever at the end of his bit was kind of weird though, ha. Weird to see him break his whole "AL-YOU-MINI-YUM" intense stare thing. Anyway, yeah. Mr. Dieter Rams is simply mesmerizing to listen to. Naoto Fukasawa's explanation of simplicity by comparing corny over the top poets (see "slam" poets) to poets who prefer hiakus really struck a chord with me. Kind of like the whole, "don't design just for design's sake" - duh, but Muji has that perfect magic about it doesn't it? I'd have to say my favorite was the Frenchman, the two Bouroullec's. They are so passe it seems - they're simply doing what they enjoy, and not too concerned about being "designers", you know? Or maybe they're just super French and I just dig French people. I think my favorite part about Objectified was that I could grab it right off iTunes for only $9.99 - I just thought that was a hell of deal, and I don't have to rip it, or whatever, I've got it with me all the time. Great flick, I highly recommend it. ***Kareem Rashid's suit jacket didn't fit. Sorry, I couldn't help myself.
What a tradition this has become for me. I remember all the way back in high school in my parents Ford Tarus in the parking lot of Best Buy ripping the wrapper off (putting the windows down like he suggested) and throwing in a new Jay-Z album. Before ever having heard any of the tracks, like early internet. I remember making one of my first paid-for websites in high school listening to Jay tell us that if we wanted to get down all we needed to invest was our time. (Paperchase is STILL one of the CRAZIEST songs, seriously.) Man oh man, Jay-Z is a business mentor of mine, indirectly, you know? Like, "I didn't got to college, I just listened to Jay-Z albums." I'll stop gushing. I haven't even listened past 4 of these new tracks and I know its another one to remember - and like most his works, its not to be compared to a previous album, each one is brand new, listen to it accordingly! Ha, he's killing me, he said: "If you like my old stuff, buy an old album." Raise your champagne glass, or diet coke can for me this morning, and toast to Jay-Z lets get it and like he said: "never let 'em see you frown, even smile when you're down.".
I did a post about Entourage the same way, like 3 seasons after it started I was like "OMG. hav u seen like this awesome show where they r just like rich and live super awesome lives?!11 its called liek Entourage or sumthing. so good!" Ha. Ehh. So yeah, I just wrapped watching the first DVD from season one. Wow, I've been missing out heavy. Brilliantly acted, produced, shot, etc. So entertaining but in a low-key, almost relaxing way I suppose. I've never worked at an ad agency but all of us here at THE BRILLIANCE either have run, are running our own projects or have freelanced in this arena at some point - so fun to look at the roots of the industry, or at least an interpretation of it. Especially seeing as how..corny ad agencies are now. No more suits, just a 'cool jeans convention' at most agencies now, ha. And a competition of who has the squarest, literally in shape, glasses. Ha, I'm sorry - I suppose I just wish it was like it was back with the Mad Men a bit more, a stack of fresh white dress shirts in your drawer to get sharp if you didn't make it home the previous night before your 9am meeting. Dig. Although, the sexual harassment and lung cancer can stay back in that era, yikes.
Hiccup, my favorite Hulu show: Three Sheets! (Entertainment!!)
That 'Hiccup' thing in the title is kind of corny. Hulu is like the American Apparel of TV isn't it kind of? Hipster Voice: "Oh dude, I love Hulu. It's just so much better compared to like TV or like cable or whatever. I hate TV." I'm like a little guilty of that statement right there myself man. Anyway, yeah man, I don't even know how I found this show, Three Sheets, but I'm quite a fan. And maybe a little jealous of this guy's 'job', ha. Quick gist: Zane Lamprey travels around to different cities, towns, etc all around the world to immerse himself in their local drinks and drinking culture. At first I thought he had kind of a corny vibe - but he's actually quite funny after you've watched a couple, he's got good snaps - kind of the perfect guy for a show like this. Yeah, not too much more to detail on this one - informative, funny, entertaining. I like how its shot/produced as well - like, one camera guy, super simple, etc. Perfect to waste a Sunday away on. I'm watching the Scotland one right now. ***I love how in this one he makes fun of the fact the Camera is already in the place he's walking into. Always super corny when they do that on 'reality' shows.
Man, I know how it works with me now - if I think something is 'weird' I'll probably like it a week or two later. Fashion, music, etc. OJ Da Juiceman is the latest iteration of this. "I tell my car to make a phone call - it does it!" Hip-hop is such an ever evolving thing isn't it?? I'm sure they're kids mad I'm even calling OJ 'hip-hop' but seriously...whatever, get over it and have more fun!! He is hip-hop. Hip-hop was built on getting your thoughts/scene out there and having fun with it. I think OJ Da Juiceman is having fun, and I'm having fun listening to him. So there you have it, right? True story, Virgil and I were requesting him at Tonic room or wherever we were in Chicago like 2 weeks ago. I love the evolution, I respect dudes who do whatever they want (his adlibs?!!?), and half the time all I want to do is dance and vibe out anyway, so dig it!!! I don't have much more else to say, thats my post. I actually have to drive home from my office now and I'll be chirping out my AYE's and OKAY's on the way!! Have a good Saturday everyone.
THE BRILLIANCE is NOT affiliated with ANY of the companies/products/services/places reviewed in any way, shape, or form.
All opinions expressed herein do not reflect those of ANY of the companies/products/services/places reviewed.
