secret squirrel

last night i went to see my friend allison weiss play a show at the secret squirrel and it was freakin' awesome.

i would tell you more about the secret squirrel, but, well, it's a pretty well kept secret and i don't want to be the one to spoil the underground hipster hangout.

cut & paste

much like radiohead's album debut of "In Rainbows", Paste Magazine is offering you a chance to pick your subscription price.



because they want to count your subscription legally, you have to pay at least $1, but that's it-- no other catch!

with music, i think the concept is fairly easy-- once you have the file, to copy it digitally is free. but i'm confused how this will work. i mean, they have to pay printing costs and shipping costs.

the only things i could think of were:
1. the price of advertising will increase to paste advertisers and they will take the cost
or
2. maybe paste is going downhill and they're just really really desperate for more readers.

anyway, it's a great magazine and who knows how long it will last.

thanks, kevin for the inside scoop ; )

augme

I heard about a t-shirt retailer whose shirts come custom-printed with a unique text message keyword and phone number-- Anyone who wants to contact the t-shirt's wearer can contact the wearer via text messaging.

Now, Augme has taken it a step further-- On their website, you can create a 2D barcode that, when scanned by a cell phone, links up the user to your myspace or facebook or whatever other website you choose.



interesting, eh?

clouding minds, cleaning streets

who says the advertising market is saturated?

just last week when i went to boston, i saw an ad on the back of my tray table on the plane... that's new. but there's always room for improvement-- i think that companies should put logos on ziplock baggies and offer those to consumers for free.

but here's a great example of an even better way to advertise. this company, based out of the UK, i think, creates a stencil of the advertisement you want to use, lays it on the ground, and then pressure washes the ground through the stencil. the result? a cleaner sidewalk, and your ad.



so far, there are no laws against this.

also note: i really like how all the projects they work on they refer to as missions.
here are some past missions.

any bigger and i'd have to join the circus

i came across this the other day, and now i really want to turn my spam mail into other forms of art.

this illustrator, linzie hunter, has been taking spam one-liners and turning them into art.

here are all of the ones she's done so far, via Flickr

shenis

so some (read: crazy) lady developed this thing, a shenis, so that girls can be like guys and pee standing up. the funny thing is, it's a plastic penis, hollowed out with a funnel at the top. and it looks funny as anything. and here's my question: what do you do with it after you use it? just slip it back in your purse?

The Shenis (yes, sounds like "penis"!) is a hollowed out, 12-inch long fake penis intended for women to use as a tool to pee while standing up. As its creator Kiki Curry states in the video clip above, it's great for hiking, boating, peeing outdoors, and intimidating men! And while we don't like doing physical activities in nature, we'd love to try this out while drunk on the streets of New York. P.S. Kiki Curry is our new fave kook.

there should be disposable sheni (i'm guessing that's the plural)

ps. check out the lady who invented it:

boston

i went to visit my sister at Tufts University in Boston and was reminded again how much i love the North. so the people keep to themselves a little more, but the culture seems so much more immense.

she told me a really cool story about their mascot, this elephant, Jumbo. When PT Barnum (a Tufts alum or something) was touring with the circus, this little elephant stepped into the middle of a train track. Jumbo, seeing the little one about to get hit by an oncoming train, pushed him off the track. the little guy was saved, but Jumbo died. PT Barnum donated the stuffed remains to Tufts/the Medford campus and eventually the Univ. adopted Jumbo as the official mascot.

so for 86 years, the stuffed elephant was on campus and people would come place a penny in his trunk before exams for good luck and the football players would pull on his tail before the games. well eventually the tail fell off and was stored somewhere else. shortly after that, a fire destroyed the building where jumbo was housed. luckily, the real tail was somewhere else (i think)

the ashes were saved and have been passed on to each new athletic coach in a peanut butter jar.

besides this neato story, i also found out my sister is a DJ, makes good grades, has boys pining for her, is super cute, and is very wellspoken.

art meets science

art meets science

easy, tiger

i saw ryan adams at the fox last night, and honestly... i was kind-of unimpressed. he played 14 songs, without talking, and then walked off stage.

i know, he's a diva. but really??

he came back and played 6 more songs and was a little more chatty, but i just expected more. a total of 20 songs??

the biggest disappointment for me was the fact that he never once brought out his acoustic guitar. and he played piano ONCE. for having such folky roots, it seems strange to me that he would only play electric guitar during the show.

and despite all this, he still remains one of my favorite artists...

slowly grind away the innocence

Day two of my Nashville trip started with a Georgia win over Vanderbilt (yay!) and ended with one of the best live shows I've been to in a while.

Jay Clifford (lead singer of Jump, Little Children when they were together) let us in on his solo project at one of the best Nashville venues-- The Mercy Lounge (Cannery Ballroom).

I loved how Jump was really able to grow through their fans with their music. When you listen to Dancing Virginia and then Body Parts or Vertigo and then Rains In Asia, you know it's still them, but they keep transforming.

Some of Jay's stuff sounded folky like The Early Years, but my favorite was a more poppy tune, Know When To Walk Away:


know when to walk away from rosie siman on Vimeo.

HARDeR. BeTTeR. FASTeR. STRONGeR.

i saw kanye west last night at Vanderbilt's Memorial Gym, and i have to say, it was one of the most entertaining shows i've been to.

i was a little confused when he came out sporting a bandana around his neck and a jet pack, but he made up for it with the extended version of 'stronger'.

the best part of the show was the fact that suite passes aren't stamped, torn, or really even checked. we started with 8 passes, and kept going out and retrieving all our friends at the door. we ended up with at least 20 people in our suite...

guster opened and was a little disappointing, but i'll forgive them because when i saw them at the Ryman, it was freakin' amazing.

here's the review from The Tennessean

my pics from the show

Target Update

I got an e-mail from 'Laura' the site administrator for Target Rounders. As I was reading her e-mail, I got a call from an agency in NYC that operates Target Rounders. The girl who sent me an e-mail and some VP were on the phone... They wanted to explain that the whole thing was a miscommunication.... But they did admit that it was unethical. They wanted me to know that this was their fault and not something from Target. They didn't send out another e-mail to clarify, but they did update a message on their website. They also deleted my facebook posts.


Here was the e-mail "apology" they sent to me:

Hi Rosie,


You are absolutely right, and your concerns are completely founded. The message in last week's newsletter was the result of a miscommunication and in fact, was not endorsed by Target. If you notice the Team Message on the Rounders' homepage, we have changed it. Target Rounders is a program designed for Target enthusiasts to help spread the word about Target and its products. We encourage honesty and transparency in these communications.


The message in last week's newsletter was merely intended to remind the Rounders not to dominate Target's facebook page or seem like an exclusive club that other Target fans are excluded from. Sorry for the miscommunication and confusion. Please let me know if you still have concerns, because your opinions are important to us, and we obviously want you to be proud to be a Rounder. Please let me know if this addresses your concerns.

Sincerely,
Laura

The original newsletter said this:

Target Rounders


Issue 107

TARGET ROUNDERS NEWSLETTER LOVES FACEBOOK!!


Your mission: try not to let on in the Facebook group that you are a Rounder. We love your enthusiasm for the Rounders, and I know it can be hard not to want to sing it from the mountaintops (and the shower, and on the bus...). However, we want to get other members of the Facebook group excited about Target, too! And we don't want the Rounders program to steal the show from the real star here: Target and Target's rockin' Facebook group! So keep it like a secret!

The updated version said this:

Thank you for your enthusiasm for the Rounders! We love it! If you want to spread the word about how to be a part of the Rounders program please let your friends know that they can visit www.targetrounders.com to get information and fill out a quick application to get accepted. Also remember that we do not want others to feel excluded from the Rounders program, so keep that in mind when chatting about it with your friends online.

target

i posted a message about how target had acted unethically on the wall of their Facebook group. not even twenty minutes after posting this, someone from their Ad/Interactive Agency (AKQA) contacted me via facebook:

Yiming Roberts
Today at 1:46pm
Report Message
Hi Rosie,

I just saw your post about the Target Rounders newsletter. Can you explain a little bit more about this? I work in advertising and I'm always interested to hear what consumers thing about brands, especially with regards to social networking.

Thanks,
Yiming

interesting...

nashville

i always loved going to shows in high school- that's what we did. go to shows.

and then i came to college in Athens and everyone talked about how Rolling Stones ranked it as one of the top college music scenes.. but no one ever went to shows. and when we did go, they sucked for the most part.

after re-living the nashville music scene i realize the main reason i'm partial to nashville. not only are there better musicians overall, but the VENUES actually have great sound, good sound guy, and have great acoustics.

(friday night i saw Kennedy at The Rutledge)

electric prom

i found this image puzzle created by hyper happen (with viral seeding by rubber republic) for bbc's electric proms.

apparently there are 80 artists "hidden" within it. someone else has done this before, but i can't remember who. i know it had smashing pumpkins though.


http://www.newmusicexperience.com/

onslaught

Yet again, Dove does it.