John Hughes helped define my childhood and the generation that grew up in the 80s. The above YouTube video brought chills down my spine thinking back to my teens and before the age of mobile communications, emails, the internet, and the archipelago of technologies and platforms that we call social media.
I’m fascinated how rapidly our society has changed since the time of Hughes’ films, and as I look ahead I wonder where we’re headed if malaise has taken over our youth to the extent that they’ve already transcended beyond the online communities. I spent a decade studying youth cultures from the 1960s to the present, and understand how media perceptions of the counterculture shaped emerging lifestyle markets of music, media, clothing, and merchandise.
Those kids of the counterculture grew up to found the advertising business we see today, and their appropriation of social scientific methodology into trendsetting, forecasting and focus groups contributed to manufacturing the niche stereotypes captured in Hughes’ films. How ironic that the people who were so against the establishment in “The Sixties” would put in place the mechanisms to feed sparks of individuality back into consumer habits via advertising, marketing, and PR.
Understanding the recurring patterns of the past makes us more conscious of how naive we are to attach ourselves to the present. Nonetheless, I find myself identifying with the following clip from Conan O’Brien, and I can’t help but wondering what’s next. John Hughes sadly died at 59 years old, but the simple pleasures he brought us through film serve as poignant reminders that everything is still amazing.
Despite a 34% decrease in sales Lamborghini continues to push forward and above is a pic of their latest model, the Gallardo LP560-4 Spyder. Classic cool, the economy continues to be weak, speculation about Twitter, Brazilian Graffiti, and much much more in this week’s trends:
I’ve been a fan of Ghostly and Spectral records since the labels first launched. I remember going to their parties in Detroit and Ann Arbor when I lived in my home state of Michigan, and buying their records when 99% of techno djs would gag at the thought of spinning with CD’s or MP3’s.
The labels have since expanded the eclectic repertoire of their musical catalog in ways that have co-evolved with the technologies used by their artists and listeners. Ghostly Discovery is arguably the best application I have seen to provide a functional service to a label’s fans while also showcasing its artists.
Simple functionality allows users to select moods based on colors, and then adjust speed/tempo and to find a balance between synthesized and natural sounds. The application also allows users to create favorites as illustrated in the following demo:
Perhaps Ghostly is one of the only labels who could pull this off with the unique variety of artists, tracks, and styles, and in my opinion the app in many ways is representative of the genre-defying innovation the label has supported since its inception.
Ghostly plans to do sneak peaks of upcoming releases exclusively through Discovery, and enables listeners to connect to iTunes to purchase individual tracks that go immediately into your permanent musical library. Now if only Ghostly would sponsor an open bar somewhere in NYC to do a launch party – hey, just gradually turn up the tempo on the app and they don’t even need to book DJs!
If you’re not familiar with the label get the application, and if you don’t have an iPhone check them out. Here’s a great video from School of Seven Bells, Enjoy!
Nostalgia tends to manifest in fashion and design in 20 year intervals – the fifties were nostalgic for the 20s and 30s, the seventies were nostalgic for the 50s, earlier in this decade there seemed to be a throwback to the 1980s, and so on…
But in the last year or so a number of “classic” styles have begun to emerge based on a 1920s sort of timeless aesthetic that seems to signify less a playful feeling of nostalgia as it does a desire to have roots in a rootless world.
My immediate impulse is to be dismissive of the “hipster” culture of dismayed apoplectic teens whose behavior is marked by consumption of “cool” because, after all, what is there to be nostalgic about from the 1990s?
But the generation now defining trends is the first mature generation of children from the baby boomers, and notably the first generation whose lives have been immersed in mass marketing from birth. Maybe this throwback to a timeless American past signifies a rejection of the marketing messages to excessively consume products and services. Perhaps it’s a rejection of the underlying values that there is one type of consumer who should max out all credit cards in pursuit of happiness via bottle service clubs, expensive cars, and designer brands.
I personally find this refreshing and a bit ironic, because the mass marketing we see today was really championed by the baby boomer generation, how far the apple has fallen from the idealistic counterculture of “The Sixties”
Photo below from my favorite neighborhood speak easy, Williamsburg’s Hotel Del Mano, where I’ve had many conversations with my good friend David Mindel that inspired this post. Video above 4-minute short from 1939 Len Lye: Swinging the Lambeth Walk.
I’m tempted to probe the depths of my being to come up with something “deep” or “profound” that could sufficiently describe the child-like satisfaction that this new video brings to me – but I won’t.
Kudos to David Lynch and Moby, from the latter’s forthcoming album.
Thanks, seriously, for making my day. Check out also the remix for “Disco and Lies” below, with footage from the Hiro Ballroom performance. I was there, were you?
Just when you thought Moby might be culturally irrelevant, he surprises you…
“When the glasses are in the tray, the eye chart appears in focus. When the glasses are removed, it becomes blurry.
Concept for an eyeglass tray using theromochromatic ink and a pressure sensor.”
Fiona has a number of other projects on her site, including a Smoking Jacket, Malignant Mole Bikinis, and Co-Dependent Gloves, but the other one that really caught my eye was her washable electronic quilt. It was developed to be a recording and playback device for a girl Fiona describes to be non-verbal and mobility challenged. The pleasing exterior hides all of the complex circuitry constructed with soft materials and fabrics.
What an excellent solution to communicate in unconventional ways and also help to “normalize” perceptions of someone with serious life challenges
I love creative ways in which people move content from events into permanent places in our lives – social networking profiles, flickr, mobile phones, email, sms, etc.. Bronques of LastNightsParty spawned a phenomenon after launching his site several years ago, and he’s branched off into doing print campaigns, video, and most recently an iTunes Podcast.
Kudos to Bronques for remaining true to the brand he’s created while extending into new directions. (Disclosure: I am working with Bronques on social media strategy, contact me if you are interested in creative sponsorship opportunities.)
MRI Light Painting’s Flashing Lights Photo Booth is one of the coolest new ways to capture the playful spontaneity of nightlife events. They add such a fun, dynamic layer to events, you can see on the faces of everyone they capture how much fun people are having creating these beautiful photos.
They’ve actually branched out to build an innovative business on top of this by selling high resolution prints of images captured at events, as well as specialty prints around the Valentine’s Day holiday.
