MURKETING

Cover versions

Just the other day, while fiddling with the new “My Times” thingy offered by the NYT, I learned that Dwight Garner, an editor at the book review with whom I used to kill time on the 11th floor (if I’m remembering right) patio on 229 W. 43rd St., has a blog on the Times site. I’ve been enjoying it, and knew that before long he’d have something that would give me an excuse to hype it. And here it is! In this post, he mentions this site of Kerouac book covers from around the world. The above is my favorite, from a 1995 Ukraine edition of On The Road. You know I love a visual remix. Anyway, apparently the book review will be printing a number of the cover variations this weekend.

Product of the day

In addition to cups and plates and other useful things, Circa Ceramics sells a number of these small (about 2 5/8 inches by 1 7/8 inch) “tabs.” They are actually not useful, but rather are “cute little bits-o-art.” Oddly appealing. The creators are interviewed at Crafty Synergy.

@, in Chicago

Seeing this on Wooster this morning made me realize it’s been quite a while since I’ve seen any new street art, by somebody new (to me), that I found really different and interesting. The artist is identified as “@.” Nice piece, in my opinion.

The bomb

I had never heard of Squidsicle until seeing an image of a grenade decorated with LV iconography on Counterfeit Chic today. The post describing what it is begins, “Remember those three inert grenades I bought?” I’ll let you read the rest of the explanation there.

Obviously I’m now quite interested in Squidsicle.

Hats off

Prior to reading a reference in Paul Lukas’s Uni Watch column on ESPN.com just now, I had never heard of the minor-league baseball team, the Lake Elsinore storm. But a glance at their cap should make it obvious why I had to check it out. According to the team site, it’s top-selling logo in all of minor-league baseball. I can see why. Amazing.

“Um, yes.”

Agenda Inc.‘s list of favorite things for the month included this YouTube Video of Andy Warhol eating a burger. After enjoying that, I spent a minute or two seeing what other Warhol artifacts are on YouTube. I watched only one: This short clip, in which Warhol gives the greatest interview of all time. I’ve seen it before and it always kills me. An absolutely perfect 30 seconds.

Do you like comix? Seriously?

It’s always good to see Murketing’s pal Josh Neufeld getting hype, even from an unlikely source such as the marketing blog Influx Insights: Here’s their Q&A with Mr. Neufeld, on the subject of his comix project for Smith Mag, titled A.D.: New Orleans after the Deluge.

An earlier Influx Insights post said that because of this whole crazy info-soaked world we living in today, there is “a new role for the comic book,” which is to tackle serious subjects, for grownup audiences. I thought that issue had been settled at least 15 years ago, when Maus won a Pulitzer Prize. But I suppose it does still pass as an insight for a lot of people. I certainly think Influx Insights is right both in its broader point, and in singling out Mr. Neufeld — but I may be biased. Check out A.D.: New Orleans after the Deluge anyway.

Go logo

I make a real effort to avoid aggressively logoed merchandise. BUT ….

I ended up on the Tide web site today, and they’re selling T-shirts (there’s a charity angle) and if you buy one, you’re entered to win “an iPod customized with the Tide logo.”

Come on, admit it. That’s hot.

Dept. of pleasing logo remixes

I think this is not-at-all new, but I still like it. The relevant link.

Cover versions

Delightful gallery of old Russian book jackets. Via Couldal.

Space City flashback

As I’ve said before, I tend to think that the most interesting stuff that surfaces in YouTube and other online video venues is often footage that’s 25 or 30 years old. So I was pretty excited to read in Houstonist that ABC-13 had put the entire debut episode of its “Live at Five” broadcast, from 1977, on its site.

I grew up in the Houston broadcast area, so Dave Ward and Marvin Zindler and Ed Brandon are familiar faces and voices. I was really excited to see some early Marvin footage — but that part of the broadcast turned out to be disappointingly tame and boring. Although, interestingly, Zindler was updating a report he’d done 30 years before the 1977 broadcast.

Clearly he hadn’t hit his stride yet in 1977. Here’s the current picture of Zindler on ABC 13 site:

The guy is a classic. This four-second YouTube clip is all you need to know. Although this one-minute clip that exults in his famous phrase “Slime in the ice machine!” is also pretty great. Though whoever uploaded it really should have let it go a little longer, since the news anchors’ bemused expressions after one of Marvin’s reports is usually pretty priceless.

Anyway, the highlights of 1977 broadcast turned out to be the old ads for Brawny, Patio frozen dinners (which I used to eat all the time), Alberto V05 hot oil treatment, and so on. Also the news broadcast’s endless opening theme song. And Dave Ward’s surprisingly robust hair, and co-anchor Jan Carson’s even more robust bow.

Gold Prize

By and large, the Pulitzers are a mystery to me. But the round of winners just announced included a truly pleasant surprise: Jonathan Gold’s win in the criticism category.

We became somewhat acquainted with Mr. Gold back when we lived in New Orleans; he would visit from time to time doing recon for Gourmet Magazine, and we would benefit because he needed diners. He was such a nice guy! And he really knew his subject. I hadn’t been a reader of the L.A. Weekly prior to that, but started checking out his column — and became a fan. (If you’ve ever perused that list of links at rights, you’ll notice that it includes one to his column, in fact.)

Apart from being a gifted and incredibly informed writer on the actual subject of food, he’s also a gifted and incredibly informed writer on the subject of Los Angeles. That is, he makes the column not just a series of restaurant reviews, but something like a food-based series of explorer’s dispatches, and the result is an ongoing guide to what a fascinating metropolis that city really is. Finally, he pulls of the tough and admirable task of giving his writing with a real point of view without simply writing about himself.
Plus he’s surprisingly knowledgeable about heavy metal. Among other things. Not that that comes up in the column.
Anyway, his work is great, and I can’t remember being so pleased about a Pulitzer winner.

Typography humor in the Onion: “Wrong Font Chosen For Gravestone”

(Thanks Cousin Lymon!)

Endorsement

I don’t really have a good excuse for saying this, but, whatever, I’m in charge here, and it’s not like you paid to get in. So: I’m a big fan of Eleni Mandell, and here new album, Miracle of Five, on the mighty Zedtone label, is out. (Here’s her site, here’s her MySpace page, where you can hear streams etc.) The standout track for me is “Salt Truck,” but other highlights include “Girls,” “My Twin,” “Make-Out King,” “Somebody Else,” and “Dear Friend.” In other words, most of the album.

Again: I’m a fan.

A few years ago I wrote this piece about Mandell, basically demanding to know why she wasn’t more famous. Predictably, the piece had no discernable impact. More recently, there have been some nice writeups on her in the current issue of Bust (which puts her on “the pedestal of indie goddesses, alongside femme fatales like PJ Harvey and Nico”), and in the Jan-Feb issue of No Depression, where I learned, among other things, that she was the singer in that Carl’s Jr. ad that got so much buzz. (It featured Paris Hilton smearing herself with hamburgers or something. I never saw it.) And, she recorded a for a Crest commercial! But her vocal wasn’t used in the end.

Looking at the article again, I see the perfect phony rationale for bringing all this up: The No Depression writer asks if she “wrestles with demons over getting in bed with Madison Avenue.” Not really, she replies.

And she’s been into sewing and knitting lately. Crafting is so on-trend! What more do you need to know? Buy the album (it’s on iTunes as well), make her famous. You’ll be glad you did.

Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not Debbie Boone’s

Earlier in the week, perusing MetaFilter, I couldn’t resist investigating this post promising a YouTube video of “Patti Smith singing ‘You Light Up My Life.’ Seriously.”

It was an appearance Kids Are People, Too, a saccharine affair with a harmless host and an audience of children, who seemed surprisingly excited to get to ask Patti Smith questions. When that part of the segment was over, she said, “I want to sing ‘You Light Up My Life,’ and I know that’s a weird choice from me, but I like that song, ‘cos I think if you really get into the words it’s got a great message.” And then she proceeds to deliver a version of the song that’s respectful, but definitely her own; she doesn’t make a joke of it, but she’s not going through the motions. That is to say, she totally nails it.

Here’s the link.

I loved this. I’m not the world’s biggest Patti Smith fan, but she was responsible for some truly sublime musical moments in her heyday, and I’d have to count this among them. All week I thought there must be something to say about somebody who started her first album by droning “Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine,” unabashedly embracing Debbie Boone’s megahit, and how that relates to the ongoing niche vs. mass debate of recent years. By now it’s clear I’m not going to come up with any profound statements, so I’ll just ask a question: While YouTube is a powerful example of our modern, tech-ennabled, post-mass culture, why is it that the most interesting clips there are invariably at least 25 years old?