Barackin' The Q

CLEVELAND — NBA superstar LeBron James and Grammy-winning recording artist Jay-Z want people to get out early to vote for Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

James and Jay-Z will host a rally Wednesday at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland which will include a free concert by the hip-hop star.

James attended a Cleveland rally earlier this month to encourage people to vote for Obama. He's also contributed $20,000 to a committee supporting the presidential nominee.
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Looks like Franklin will be ducking out of the office tomorrow to pick up a ticket.

Eagle Woman

The Hate Continues

via Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish

Quite literally changing the game.

Presidential candidate is the first to buy ad space inside a video game.

Ready

I can honestly say, It has been a while since I've been this hyped for a flick.

I'm about 1/4 through the graphic novel and it's hella dope.

The last shot alone gives me a semi.

I'm an idiot and I get my news from Sean Hannity.

Cleveland area blog bloggerinterrupted took some cringeworthy video at a McCain/Palin event in this area.*






* The campaign event was held in Strongsville, a suburb of Cleveland. If you know anything about the Cleveland area, there has been a long-standing geographic racial divide (easing up a little recently) between the East and West Side of the city and her suburbs. Strongsville is about as "west side" as you get.

***UPDATE***

I also came across this one today. This is from a McCain/Palin rally in Bethlehem, PA.



This could get ugly. It's one thing to paint your opponent as a wine-sipping, latte-drinking, wind-surfing frenchman. It's something a lot more sinister to paint his as a Terrorist-sympathising, america-hating radical-muslim Mancurian candidate.

Now I'm starting to worry a lil' bit.

My Daily Reminders for the Office

• When saying words that end in 'ing' ... say the 'g.'
• When listening to hip-hop, always use the headphones.
• Don't look angry, even when you're fuckin' angry.
• When greeting clients, don't say "wuddup?"
• When greeting clients, don't say "howdy!" either. There's no need to compensate.
• Don't allow Black panhandlers to guilt you into giving them money because you're walking with your white coworkers. Give them money because you want to... or don't.
• You've gone this far without playing drinking games. Don't start now.
• You are in no way inferior because you didn't travel to Europe before, during or immediately after college.
• Save the CB4, Fear of a Black Hat, Major Payne, Last Dragon, Dolemite, Malcom X, School Daze and Hollywood Shuffle references for another time. They won't get them. Even if you find the clip on YouTube and e-mail it to them.

A-funkin-dorable

I guess these have been around for a while, but they're new to me.





::::props to The Martin Agency::::

Headphone Heat - Blitz the Ambassador

Brooklynite by way of Accra, Ghana.

Blitz is actually a college homie of mine currently making moves in NYC.

This video is about 2 years old, but timely.



Visit Blitz the Ambassador on MySpace

Branding Ineptitude

Currently making the rounds among Browns fans under the subject heading,

"Why we keep losing."

Palintology

More good stuff at drawger.

The real measure of success

If any marketing folks out there come across this post, please chime in.

This comes from a client presentation I was party to a couple of months ago.

(This also comes from my notebook of posts I was planning to make this past summer.)

You work for "Company A" making widgets.

You are in competition against Companies B, C & D.

Is it a common measure of your brand's success and reputation in the marketplace by comparing the percentage of buyers that are "Caucasian" for each of the four brands?

So if 75% of Brand C's buyers are Caucasian and 50% of Brand A's buyers are Caucasian, Brand C is the stronger brand.

Is that normal?

Learning the ways of the force.

I recently came across this post from the guys at American Copywriter that I've found to be especially helpful this week.

If you get a chance, check it out.

Jedi Copywriter.

"Shiiiiiit. I'm broke m'damn self."

1) I'd love to see what they passed on to produce this.

2) I wonder what percent of revisions had to do with logo size.

I'm not your damn 'Bro.'

"Don't mean to be a dick, but you can stop calling me bro."

Energy Efficient Pimpin'

Smart Car body kits.

Start here.

Go here.

Very cool.

Headphone Heat - Free The Robots

A friend of mine, knowing I have a fondness for robots(read: geek), gave me a copy of this EP and it has stayed in the ride and in the headphones.

It has proven to be great concepting - and drinking - music.

Free The Robots on MySpace
Free The Robots on Blogspot

The DY-NO-MITE!!! taste

The Big Picture

I've become fond of Boston.com's Big Picture.

Wordle To Your Mother

from wordle.net

Something lame I decided to do.

Whatever.

I was working at a rather large company’s corporate HQ in a quite shitty job with my headphones on.

One of my co-workers came into my area with a work order, so I took off my headphones and before I could say anything, she said, "Two planes just hit the World Trade Center, one on each side," gesturing with her hands.

“Really (or something like that)," I replied, immediately putting down my walkman.

I stood up and started to leave to go to the cafeteria, where there was a TV.

"Where are you going?"

"To... see... what… happened."

"Oh," she said before turning and walking back to her desk, presumably to get back to work.

When I got to the cafeteria, which was nearby, people were steadily streaming in as word spread throughout the corporate campus.

After some time, I walked back to my department to find everyone sitting at his or her desk, working. As if the most significant event in modern American history wasn’t happening at that very moment.

Just something I remember from that day.

Step your ad game up

While on my summer hiatus, I kept a notepad with me to jot down thoughts and ideas for the blog.

Some of those ideas aren't so timely anymore, some you'll be seeing in the coming days. (weeks)

Well, the folks at Crooksandliars beat me to one.

Barack needs to step his ad game up, big time.

They say what I've been thinking since Barack got spanked in Ohio earlier this year by Hillary .

"It’s not that Obama’s ads are bad by any normal metric. They’re well produced and they usually hit the right themes. The problem is that they’re very conventional. Obama is supposed to exude change. But his ads don’t. They look like the ads we see every election cycle: images, text, and video footage linked together by the voice of a professional narrator. They may be marginally effective, but they are exceedingly forgettable and often make Obama come across as just another politician playing the same old game..."

Read the rest of the article here.

Autobots For Obama

Visit Logobama


No Good Swindlers Seeking Redemption are For Obama as well

Uppity

Westmoreland calls Obama ‘uppity'

Terrorist Fist Jab For John Ridley

Full article at The Huffington Post:

If you get 18 million people to vote for you in a national presidential primary, you're a "phoney." Get 100,000+ people to vote you governor of the 47th most populous state in the Union, you're "well loved."

If you are biracial and born in a state not connected to the lower 48, America needs darn near 2 years and 3 major speeches to "get to know you." If you're white and from a state not connected to the lower 48, America needs 36 minutes and 38 seconds worth of an acceptance speech to know you're "one of us."

If you give your wife a dap on stage, it's actually a "terrorist fist jab." If your daughter licks her palm so that she can slick down your youngest child's hair on national TV it's an "adorable moment." (Seriously, forget about abstinence only, teach these folks some grooming skills).

If your pastor rails against inequality in the United States of America, you're an "extremist." If your pastor welcomes a sermon by a member of Jews for Jesus who preaches that the killing of Jews by terrorists is a lesson to Jews that they must convert to Christianity, you're a "fundamentalist."

If you're 18, white, and get a 16 year old girl pregnant "life happens." If you're 18, black, and impregnate a 16 year old girl, you're a "registered sex offender."

Road To The White House

Barack, Michele, Joe and Hill riding the wave from Denver.

from Frank151

Stupid Means Dumb

Everybody burns...

VD is for everybody!!!

While in the checkout line....

The awesomest irony

St. Paul

Ketchup

Franklin had a hectic summer...

Franklin almost got his ass fired.
Franklin has been doin' a lot of stuff for other people, while neglecting his own shat.
Franklin is tired of family drama.
Franklin needs to make more ads.
Franklin can't decide what's worse. Committees or focus groups.
Franklin wants to vomit every time he sees a Liberty Mutual Crash rip-off TV spot.
Franklin learned how seriously white people take slow pitch softball.
Franklin only watched two movies this summer.
Franklin really hates revisions.
Franklin loves swag.
Franklin was reminded how helpful golf is professionally.
Franklin spent a good month not giving a shat about shat.
Franklin has overdosed on politics.
Franklin was seriously tempted to pull ye olde race card, but chose otherwise.
Franklin learned that ideas are not as important as PowerPoints.

And most importantly...

Franklin is still the black guy in the office.


Sorry for the absence.

I'm Back And I'm Black

Girl Talk

Heavy rotation last week, and probably this week too.



Girl Talk - Feed The Animals

Converse

A coworker sent this to me last week. I dug it.

thisistheindexpage

converse.com/connectivity

Why Dubai Fascinates Me, Reason #47

Dynamic Tower Skyscraper: Every Floor Self-Rotates, Powered by Wind and Sun

Now off to the ball pit.

Me and my cuzins had our share of Chuck E. Cheese bithday parties growing up.

We never had it poppin' like this, though.



For the record, this song is trash.

We need to find somebody to program "Pass The Dutchie" up in that thang.

Music. Dance. Clock

>>>It's freaking hypnotizing.<<<

Slow Day Today

Here's another cool illustrator we came across today.

N8 Van Dyke

Creative Class for Obama

Sitting around with my art director buddy today, I came across these at Upper Playground

Sam Flores

Munk One

Date Farmers

Mear One

Alex Pardee

Morning Breath


Yea, they're probably old, but they're new to me.

Diversity Initiative

We now have 2 redheads in the office.

Cutty say he can't hang...

This never gets old.

You Gets No Love From Me

As I shared a few weeks ago, I make sure to speak to all of the staff in our building. I also make a special point to acknowledge and speak to my elders, as I was raised.

Well, my coworkers often see me speaking to the building staff, usually when we are walking to or from our overpriced, unsatisfying lunch.

Over the course of the past few weeks, I guess my coworkers have been doing the same. (I'd like to think they're taking a cue from me.)

Funny thing is, the same woman from my previous post won't respond back to them.

According to them, when they pass her by - in the hallway or lobby - she doesn't say anything back or acknowledge them.

"I don't think she likes white people."

Could be.

24/7 Bullshhhhhh

Don't be surprised once we get to October and November if Fux News runs a banner saying, "Dammit America, He's Black. Wake The Fuck Up!"

Don't Disappoint

Fly or Die sucked it up.

In Search Of... is easily in my top 10 (just above AMG's B*tch Betta Have My Money - the song titles alone make that album a classic)



June 10th I plan on buying this and playing it loudly in the office.

Don't let me down P.

You f*ckers owe Luther Campbell

That's what friends are for.

A friend of mind sent me this camera phone image the other day.



Appearantly this sign sits, unappreciated, in another friend's basement.

I immediately called and offered to buy it.

"It's not for sale."

I suppose we'll be on speaking terms again. Someday.

Prevent Forest Fires, Yo

c. 1993

Smokey sounds a whole helluva lot like Optimus Prime, don't he?

Now, I have to admit, I used to love this joint below.



Because there's nothing very funny 'bout a big fat bunny./
Nothing very nice for the homeless mice.

Am I hearing that right?

Thug Constipation 101

1) Who the fuck is Mickey Avalon?
2) How the fuck did his wack ass get on this already wack spot, increasing the wackness factor one hundred fold?
3) Who thought it was a good idea?
4) Is that person still employed?

Get Axelrod on the phone.

Initially, I was thinking Jim Webb would be a solid choice for Veep. That is, if Hill declines the inevitable push from the party to take it.

But the homie No Joke figured out exactly how to get over that damn Appalachian hump.



from no joke jones

I Had To

Wiggle

Seeing as how every tv spot or print ad for an auto dealership blows hard, at least where I live,I have to give it up to Johnson Automotive Group in NC.



Funny stuff.

Lé 3D

A co-worker (and official homie) shot me a link to this 3D artist.

And since I like robots and space and sh*t like that, I thought it was cool and thought I'd pass it along.


zamak
(it's in french, so I just looked at the pictures.)

A Wall Painted Animation

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

I Can't Believe This Wasn't #1

The 50 Greatest Commercial Parodies Of All Time According to these folks.

Nerdgasm

Because I want to

Wisdom from our elders

I've been trained since I was a youngin' to speak to my elders. Usually, I acknowledge the folks around the building and neighborhood with a friendly, "How you doin' today?"

There's a sista on the cleaning staff that I've seen everyday since I've been here. And everyday, I nod my head and offer a simple, "How you doin' today?"

"Just fine young man," she usually responds.

I usually see her in the lobby, every morning reading the newspaper.

Last week, we walked pass each other on my floor and she stopped me.

"You work on this floor?" she asked.

"Yes ma'am."

Then she whispered, "You the first black person I've ever seen on this floor!"

A couple days later, I passed her in into the lobby while she was reading the paper, as usual. And she called me over.

"Are you the only black person that works there?"

"Yes ma'am," I replied.

"Are they racist?"

"Well they hired me," I replied.

"Umm-hmm," she replied, adding, "I don't know if I can work someplace like that. I like it when it's mixed up with everybody, ya know."



I do too.

WORD THE F*CK UP.

The best desk ever.

I want one yesterday.

Saw it here.

Now if I can find some help in lighting.

Rarely does a piece of web video cross my path that delivers such a range of emotions. Confusion to disgust to kind of cool back to confusion, ending with a resounding horrible.

Touch The Sky

One of the things that's been really fascinating to me over the past few months is the boom in supertall skyscraper construction and design in Dubai (I suppose the rest of the world too).

Working in a city with this paltry ass, unbalanced skyline (as well as mildly retarded approach to urban planning) has me longing for a trip to Dubai.

I was just reminded of a family trip to Chicago when I was a pre-teen. As we approached Cleveland on our return, and saw the Cleveland skyline creeping over the horizon, my step-father and I spontaneously started booing.

Some pretty cool stuff to look @:

Skyscraper City
Dubai Waterfront
Skyscraper Page
Burj Dubai

For Pop

I caught this a while ago at AdRants and forgot to post it.

Great Work.

Just Funny

Kids are stupid.

It Works Every Time!

Sweet Plug-In

I've been having fun with this Firefox plug-in at work (and home).

As you can see, I've entered my surrogate father, Billy Dee Williams', name into a YouTube search. It kicks out the results in an active 3D format, for selecting and viewing.

Awesome. Get It Now.