I love this video. It’s indie darling Lykke Li performing her own version of Rick Ross’s 2006 hit “Hustlin.” This video was taken inside of LA’s Not to Be Reproduced. On guitar is Björn Yttling, member of the Swedish indie rock band entitled Peter Bjorn and John. Seeing Lykke Li curse like that is pretty weird and funny at the same time. The audience seems to totally dig it, nonetheless.
Still Terrible After All These Years: Three Decades of Crappy Games Based on Hit Movies
[caption id=”attachment_1604” align=”aligncenter” width=”555” caption=”The Texas Chainsaw Massacre…feel the fear.”]
We’ve become so cynical that even the most mediocre manifestation of the Hollywood marketing juggernaut—the video game adaptation of a Hollywood blockbuster—is now regarded with a shrug. Blame it on decades of desensitization to low quality and quick-buck schemes, but even the most reliable pop culture critics (I’m referring to that spicy blend of hipster, gamer, and techie) reserve their outrage for Uwe Boll instead of pointing their Doritos-stained fingers at lousy games. Why? Because they are exhausted. Too many targets tire even the most Spartan of sniping critics. Their trigger fingers are blistered and their cartridges are spent. Movies make for bad games but this doesn’t stop game adaptations, and since movies don’t show any sign of improving—Beverly Hills Chihuahua, anyone?—the snipers have packed up their rifles and trudged home. Taking potshots at Billy Mays along the way.
Photoshop Adbusting On Display in Berlin Subway
Adbusting is a type of street art in which a billboard or other large, obnoxious advertisement is cleverly altered, or even destroyed. More often then not, adbusting is done to send a very specific message to a large audience. Photos snapped earlier this week show the work of Mr. Tailon, Baveux Prod., Kone, & Epoxy. They wheatpasted Photoshop controls and boxes onto a large Berlin subway ad containing the pictures of Britney Spears, Leona Lewis, and Christina Aguilera. I’m pretty certain that these guys were successful in getting their point across.
Mixtape Mondays: Jay-z vs. Radiohead - Jaydiohead
If Loving You is Wrong, I Don't Want to Admit I Once Liked Winger
There are few things in life more satisfying than having bad taste redeemed. Such redemption is rare because the label “bad taste” usually applies to pop culture, and once we label something as bad taste, the label is permanent. There are exceptions, of course, mostly outside of pop culture—Nabokov’s _Lolita _was considered in bad taste but only by the uptight literati whom no one pays much attention to anyway, unless you buy your clothes from J. Peterman and refuse to watch television and scoff at things like Bruce Willis movies.
Pop culture sets the bar low. But low doesn’t necessarily mean “terrible,” except 90% of the time. So when we look back and rediscover the joy of bad taste…damn if it isn’t satisfying. And thus we are brought to this week’s column, a tasty blend of 80’s hair metal band Winger, really bad mix tapes, and the worst break-up of my college days.