Apple’s iconic “Get a Mac” ad campaign is no more: Jobs & Co. have pulled the plug on the cheeky TV spots that pitted stuffy-button-down-middle-aged-guy John Hodgman against relatable-young-hip-dude Justin Long (human representations of PC and Mac, respectively).

Here’s a montage of some memorable moments between the two titans of technology:

It’s an easy metaphor for the shift from the PC vs. Mac decade to a full-fledged, multi-platform war between Apple and everyone from Google to Adobe to Amazon—not to mention Microsoft ever-looming in the background—though it’s far to early to tell who will be the next Hodgman.

Not my best work, but what the hell (I wasn’t satisfied with Obamicon.Me’s quick rendition and I like to have control over these things anyway). I’m at a loss for an appropriate four(ish)-letter caption.

Original photo via Everdream Radio, a weird media site that Google Image search managed to dig up. I wonder how long it will be before I receive a takedown request… or lawsuit.

While Americans tend to pigeonhole IKEA as the beginning and end of home furnishing for the pre- and post-grad years known as the early twenties, the rest of the world sees it from other perspectives.

In this corner, coming in at some 50-strong, we have the displaced and disgruntled creative elite of Hamburg’s Frappant office building, staging an ideological protest by (re?)appropriating the showroom as a functional workspace.

And in the other corner, we have legions of workaday Chinese, young relatives and cameras in tow, drawn to the blue-and-yellow monolith purely for sport and leisure, with little to no intention of actually buying anything.

And thus, Sweden’s pride and joy asserts its rightful status as a symbol for capitalism, globalization and (lest we forget) affordable modern design.

I can only speculate as to the significance of these two divergent perceptions of the überbrand:

As I understand it, the German yuppies are protesting both a proposed store (at the site of their office space) and the broader city-branding campaign that it represents: a new IKEA would not only force them out of their studios but also (rather insidiously) leverages Hamburg’s reputation as a creative and intellectual community to justify gentrification. In other words, the city hopes to raise its profile by simultaneously piggybacking on and alienating its thriving creative class.

The Chinese, on the other hand, are simply piqued by the novelty of the megastore—and let’s face it, there really isn’t any other kind of store or novelty in Beijing—another instance of the prevalent Chinese fetishization of Western consumerism in theory but not necessarily practice.

The irony, then, is that the Hamburgers’ (yes I’ll admit that this post is just a long excuse to use that term) activism actually plays right into the marketing—i.e. IKEA is for creative people! (cf. Apple)—that they are protesting, while the Beijingers’ behavior is easily more subversive: taking advantage of the showroom without any commitment to buy.

Though frustrated, IKEA executives hope browsers like Luo will eventually turn into buyers. That’s why they don’t shoo anyone away for sleeping. It’s the promise of China’s middle class that has girded their investment here. The privately owned company operates seven stores in China, though there have been indications that profit remains elusive.

“The brand awareness is great, but the question is, how do we get people to open up their wallets and spend money?” said Linda Xu, a company spokeswoman who rolled her eyes when she came upon a trio of slumbering customers.

–Beijing Loves IKEA—But Not for Shopping
The LA Times, 08/25/09

Photos via *urbanshit.de and LA Times. See also: Sleeping Chinese.

–My subway obsession continues… though I don’t believe that any of those stations could possibly be real. (DB)

–Steven Holl’s Nanjing Museum of Art and Architecture (top) is nearly finished. I’ve been meaning to check out his Linked Hybrid (bottom) in Beijing, but haven’t had the chance…

–I just discovered Sleevage, a blog that explores album artwork new and old. (The Animal Collective and Jay-Z entries are quite interesting and relevant as year-end list time is upon us.)

–PSFK has brought an interesting phenomenon to my attention: adman George Parker cites Starbucks’ unbranding experiment in his post on a resurgent (No Logo-esque) brand backlash (astute readers will note that I just read Naomi Klein’s manifesto). I followed the link to Bryant Simon’s essay on Reuters.com, which provides a nice rundown of Starbucks’ attempt to appropriate the local, indie coffeeshop aesthetic—i.e., the rejection of its corporate encroachment and supersaturation tactics. Very interesting.

In fact, the New York Times (Why don’t I just marry them?) has also picked up on this local and handmade trend, perhaps best known in its Slow Food manifestation, with some timely gift advice: local and handmade are so hot right now. Not that Etsy really needs the boost, considering its massive growth in the past couple years—which, in turn, has metastasized into a parody (2.0) spinoff site, Regretsy.

Beijing has plenty of Starbucks, but the trend here is decidedly global, factory-made and, um, dependent. Just as the subway has grown by leaps and bounds since my last visit five years ago, that timeframe has also seen the arrival of the sandwich chain Subway, just around the corner from the McDonald’s and two KFC’s on my block—one of which appears to be a Combination Pizza Hut & KFC. Jamaica Ave don’t got shit on Chengfu Road.

–Speaking of AnCo and brand backlash, Carles of the infamous Hipster Runoff ran off. Crazy shit. I wrote a brief essay on HRO for the Joneses blog earlier this year and it seems to be a rather appropriate (if not altogether prescient) obituary, if I do say so myself.

So the Village Voice recently interviewed mystery blogger Carles, the man behind the contrarian ‘altblog’ Hipster Runoff, a veritable mash-up of contemporary indie subculture and the cynical dissection of it. The result occasionally flirts with brilliance, or at least knows what brilliance is, but more often comes off as a headache-inducing exercise in irony in the Age of Web 2.0. (Caveat emptor: this is not an endorsement unless you have a fetish for the the prefix “alt-”.)

Hipster Runoff’s tone is equally self-promoting and self-deprecating (not to mention self-referential) but always knowingly so, something like the editors of Vice Magazine playing the rest of Williamsburg in an epic game of Scrabble… within a single ego. Despite his penchant for appropriating post-LOLCATS bombast (srsly) and subverting neologisms—bro, ghey, blog house etc.—I wouldn’t be surprised if Carles was a bright kid in a second-rate city who happens to have a little extra time on his hands.

At its core, Hipster Runoff is a product of postmodernity, a blog about blog culture that asks to be blogged about (literally). But if the suggestion of recursiveness—infinite levels of analysis and endless layers of subtext—is symptomatic of modern man’s futile search for meaning, Hipster Runoff is an intentional parody of itself, disguising the abyss with a hot pink header, uncomfortably large helvetica typeface, and ubiquitous American Apparel (Am Appy for short) ads. Apparently, overdosing on irony is the opiate for the alt-masses.

Of course, it’s always difficult to critique a subsumptive zeitgeist when you’re living it, something like (if you’ll excuse the rather grotesque metaphor) pinning the tail on a donkey that has swallowed you whole. Or, alternately (pun intended), the unsettling feeling that you’ve created a monster but must keep feeding it if only to prevent it from eating you. Hence the conception that hipsterdom is parasitic on the detritus of previous creative movements, which has evolved into an ungodly Katamari-like entity of pure snark.

Perhaps this is why I find Hipster Runoff so irritating: the fact that he has seen into the soul of the beast has spawned a critique that is not prescriptive or even palliative but, on the contrary, amplifies its bite and rate of consumption.

At the end of the day, I prefer the comfort of Brooklyn Vegan’s no-frills news, pics and commentary. But Carles must be doing something right—he got me to blog about his blog.

–Nike Sportswear NSW Holiday 2009 Collection. (The Chinese happen to love Nike, myself included… which is somewhat ironic because I just read Naomi Klein’s No Logo. Possibly the topic of a future post.) (HB via Starcow)

–Ministry of Sound × Transportation for London × New Year’s Eve (PSFK)

–Looks can be deceiving: Susan Boyle slays the charts (Daily Swarm)

–Crowd(source) to InBev: “Heineken? Fuck that shit! PABST BLUE RIBBON!” (Buy a Beer Company via Springwise)

–Nine Inch Nails is selling their touring gear on eBay (NIN/eBay via Pitchfork)

–Polar bears are fucking awesome (Animal NY via Daily Mail) ]]> http://idolizeyourkillers.com/2009/12/assorted-links-2/feed/ 0 http://idolizeyourkillers.com/2009/11/jah-moose-vi/ http://idolizeyourkillers.com/2009/11/jah-moose-vi/#comments Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:56:25 +0000 Ray http://idolizeyourkillers.com/?p=48 Lebron’s name in Chinese is just “James” [詹姆斯; zhan1mu3si1, pronounced like the title of the post].

AP Photo with a touch of 'shopping

The Cavalier has made headlines by mandating (or at least advocating) the permanent retirement of the number 23, which he currently shares with the Greatest. The move has been regarded as a curiously deferential form of hubris—insofar as LBJ hopes to be the last player to sport the big 2-3—as the superstar will settle for number 6 (his Olympic designation) next season.

Via Cleveland.com of all places… though I did come across this story in a Chinese paper the next day, with a headline that roughly translates to “In the Vault” or “Seal It Up” (封存), which I take to be the Chinese translation of ‘retiring’ a number.