When I was a kid I was mad about aircraft. I was the type to have multiple plastic model projects on the go, and I could identify and list the specs on just about any military plane. Janes was my preferred reading… well, you get the idea. I suppose had I grown up to be an artist, and realized I could mess about with full scale versions of my dream jets, I’d be doing what Fiona Banner has done. These two recent installations at the Tate Modern are gorgeous, and for me, drool inducing.
I had recently heard about this video, but only just watched the (short) version now. It is sickening. It is harrowing. What is going on with the world? Of course war is not a pretty thing, ever. But this trigger happy “engagement” of civilians is extremely disturbing. The cold, flippant comments by the attackers are shocking. There is nothing new here in terms of what they are doing- its been done by every warring nation across the span of human history. What is new though is the business of war has become more sophisticated, more deadly, and more sanitized (for those doing the killing). Modern warfare offers up a strange double-edged sword. On the one hand new technologies allow for impartial, unblinking gunners to mow down distant targets that are viewed intimately through digital zooms. A boon for the pro-military set and for statisticians counting kill rates, but a step back for humanity. On the other hand these developments also (sometimes) creates a very ugly, yet truthful record which could motivate a public to resist their gov’t’s militaristic intentions. It strips all pretense of glory from the idea of “War”, which is a good thing. I wonder if avid FPS players see this is as shocking, or would the reaction be blase? Do the fans of “strong military” see this as business as usual, or could they also feel disgust and horror after viewing this clip?
A big bravo to Wikileaks for releasing this. People need to know, and be educated.
An impressive video created by a German design student named Alexander Lehmann. This same film could be created for any number of countries - including the UK and USA. The most depressing part is that this kind of thing is no longer shocking (enough).
As if their clothes alone are reason enough NOT to shop there - H&M, among other retailers, was exposed this week for destroying perfectly good clothes. Because they’re price points and quality are too low to send the unsold merchandise to a closeout retailer they simply shred the clothes with box cutters and throw them in the dumpsters in back of their stores. I guess the reason I’m surprised about this is because most companies I have worked with have some sort of outlet for hard-to-sell goods. With H&M not having outlets I guess I assumed they were shipping the clothes off to some underprivileged far-away local (which, by the way, is what is done with all the pre-manufactured losing Super Bowl team merchandise).
There are so many people in need of warm clothes this time of year and in this economy they could have helped. Oddly enough, H&M has an executive in charge of corporate responsibility who leads the company’s sustainability efforts. Let’s just hope that all this attention changes their practices.
And because I probably couldn’t say it better or in more biting fashion, this from nymag.com:
“The store also throws out plastic hangers in perfectly good condition, which is ridiculous, because clothes may go out of style, but those certainly do not. The Times reports: H & M, which is based in Sweden, has an executive in charge of corporate responsibility who leads the company’s sustainability efforts. On its Web site, H&M reports that to save paper, it has shrunk its shipping labels.
Maybe they donated $5 to save the polar bears last year, too.”
I’d rather not go into a retrospective of the year but in the just over 3 years NewDandyism has been on the web a lot of things have changed - with us and the world - and I can’t begin to pretend to tell you I know exactly where things are headed. But what I wanted to do as the year winds down was address a few topics and answer few questions we have been hearing a lot from you, our readers.
Many of you have asked if we have lost some of our politically fire since Obama was elected president.
That’s a difficult one. Yes, it has been too long (2 months) since our last truly politically driven post. And there are a few reasons. The first reason is simple, sometimes we get so engulfed in what we actually do for a living, design, that we ourselves aren’t staying as informed as we’d like on all issues. And we are not ones to spout off without knowledge of a topic.
The second and most important reason is that although we are coming up quick on a full year of Obama in office, we wanted to give the administration of change a chance to actually do some changing before we begin to publicly judge. Up to this point we have been more than frustrated with Obama’s first year but still have a ton of hope he will soon escape the political mud.
But being involved in the process is not just about talk but action as well. And although we have not been as vocal here, we have been doing our part, however small, to better the world we live in by donating time and money to the causes we believe in. There are a ton of ways we can all be involved and we’re going to try to do a better job of keeping you aware the options out there.
Lately we have been hearing a lot of questions about our evolving style on the site - what’s up with that?
Yes, what is up with that? I’ve alluded to this a few times over the last few months within posts but let me collect all my thoughts here on the subject - well, it’s pretty simple, everyone’s style evolves, even if ever so subtly. We are designers after all and we are in a constant internal struggle with pushing the boundaries and what the end user is willing to accept. Through this process we are continually exposing ourselves to new ideas, experiences, and inspiration. It is inevitable that our lives will shape our style. We are no trend whores but to think that how we dress today will be how we dress forever is unrealistic no matter how “trad” we think we are. We have always pushed for investment shopping not just out of our on style philosophy about buying clothing and objects that will stand the test of time but also, and most importantly, because we are eco conscience people and hate the thought of more product being manufactured that is inevitably headed to the landfill.
All that being said, we do have a proven track record of understanding what will be trending and you can see some of those influences in our content. But sorry to all you industry folk that visit us regularly, we will not be giving any free trend reports here. However, we will continue to bring you our perspective on the things we love and find interesting.
Who are you guys?
Another good question. We forget sometimes that not everyone is in our industry that visits ND and that many of you are not truly sure who is writing all this opinionated dribble. I don’t do New Year’s resolutions but I will promise you that we will get our shit together and finally fill in the blank that is our “who” page.
For those of you that have not discovered our email address on that “who” page, you can email us with all your thoughts, questions, or feedback at contact@newdandyism.com.
So cheers to 2009, and wishing all of you a prosperous and adventurous New Year.
According to CBS Sunday Morning it’s all the rage for “the younger generation” to get together around the holidays for Ugly Christmas Sweater parties. There are a couple examples of what I’m talking about pictured above. In fact these examples aren’t even close to the worst options available. I’m not saying I condone this sort of behaviour, but I do like that people are finding uses for fashions discarded monstrosities.
I went to see the new Yes Men film last night at Coolidge corner. It turned out to be an inspiring film.
It was funny, sometimes hilarious, other times shocking and saddening. All in all it gave me some hope that something can be done to better the world. A few of us are trying to do just that. Some are having some impact, though mostly on public opinion I’m afraid. Many corporate polluters, etc. just seem to keep on going, despite the facts, criticism or ridicule from films like this one.
Anyhow, the main stars of The Yes Men were present for a Q&A and also for a photoshoot to help support an upcoming planned protest. I wanted to walk over and thank them but they were pretty busy answering questions and posing for photos. Instead I grabbed a couple of their “recent” NYT issues they had created and scampered off. I was supposed to leave a donation but instead I’ll contribute to one of their future escapades.
Today, after re-reading the fantastic article “Faustian economics: Hell hath no limits” I also read an excellent interview in the Sun magazine with Wendell Berry. He is a hero of mine, and his words rand true, but I ended up feeling quite beleaguered and discouraged. As Alvin Toffler once said, and I paraphrase, modern man seems to be living two lives. He can co-exist with both, even though they are seemingly contradictory. For example a person could work at a factory manufacturing chemical warfare weapons, yet return home and be a loving parent with strong Christian values and have no qualms about it.
I feel movies such as “Yes men fix the world” can fill people with outrage but the actual actions needed to change things are lacking. We know what the right thing to do is, but seem largely incapable of doing anything. Are we beaten down by years of television-fed pap? Or is there a general sense of powerlessness from a culture of too much choice? I’m sure its not a simple answer. But still I wonder why…
For full effect, you need to watch this in HD. I like the dude that is sitting way to close for comfort (4:24)- shades of Corsica in the mid 80’s for sure. Its not WRC, but Block is pretty quick.
I’m a big fan of 1930-40’s slacks- the sort of high waisted mens trousers that were big from the late 19th Century until the 1940s. The dude in the photo above (British army-North African campaign?) looks so smart. Minus the pipe he seems almost… modern. In addition to the (wool?) slacks he’s sporting a tidy, classic looking watch and a short sleeved work shirt featuring a curious spread collar construction.
The proportions of this style of slacks were elegant and the big draping in the legs looked great. Haversack has a contemporary example of this style in its Lodencross trouser. The waist is lower than I’d like it to be but I love the button details and suspender fasteners. The Lodencross comes from a line based on old blocks and patterns from shooting, hunting and military uniforms.
I’ve tried to pull this this look off myself in the past but it just doesn’t work- however I was lacking a key ingredient- proper braces. Who knows if this classic mens staple will make a proper comeback, but it would be a refreshing change.
I was doing the dishes the other day (oh how I abhor dishwashing) and was listening to Billy Holiday. “Strange Fruit” was playing, a favourite of mine. I understood the basic premise of the song but when I listened closely I suddenly realized the words weren’t quite so symbolic (Southern trees bear strange fruit…) but rather graphic and harsh. An extraordinary song. (And no, its not a new song for anyone wanting to reblog this.) “Strange Fruit” was inspired by a lynching in Indiana in 1930. The song was written as a poem by Abel Meeropol and published in 1936.
Anyone who knows Utah knows the power of wind, water and sun. You can see that power in Utah’s sculpted arches of stone, in our majestic mountains capped with snow, and in the cracked earth of our deserts.
Nature’s power is so obvious that you have to wonder why we’ve mostly ignored it as a source of energy to run our homes and businesses, and to propel our cars and trucks.
After all, if we did a little more to harness that power, we could begin to solve some of our most pressing environmental and economic challenges. In fact, creating electricity from the energy that nature gives us is critical if we’re going to reduce global-warming pollution, protect public health with clean air and water, create jobs in Utah and ultimately bring down energy prices. We know that burning fossil fuels is destabilizing the atmosphere and acidifying the oceans. We know that our dependence on oil shackles us to dangerous foreign regimes and to the escalating prices they’ll inevitably charge as demand outstrips supply. But we also know how to break our dependence and free ourselves from this destructive cycle.
Why keep buying foreign crude when we could be making energy right here in Utah from sunlight, wind and geothermal power? Why rip up more pristine wilderness to extract dirty fuels when we could generate clean power from the energy nature delivers to our doorstep?
Dollar for dollar, investing in clean energy creates more jobs than investing in traditional energy sources like oil and gas. That really matters, especially when you consider that more than 30,000 Utah workers lost their jobs last year.
We’ve got tens of thousands of windy acres here in Utah, sites for geothermal energy abound, and the southern part of the state has tremendous potential for solar power. We will have to carefully pick renewable energy sites that don’t endanger critical habitat and wilderness-quality land, but the opportunity is vast.
So how can we jump start a home-grown clean-energy economy?
Right now Congress is working on a landmark clean-energy jobs plan that would boost the amount of wind, solar and other clean energy our country produces. The American Clean Energy and Security Act will also make our vehicles, appliances and buildings more efficient, and update our antiquated electricity grid.
Our investments in clean energy and efficiency today will pay dividends for generations. They will create good, family-sustaining jobs that can’t be shipped overseas, and they will lower energy prices in the long run. They will reduce energy dependence and global-warming pollution, and make our economy more competitive. It’s true that the economic and environmental challenges we confront are serious. But Americans have never encountered a challenge of any kind that we couldn’t overcome by working together and applying our ingenuity.
That is what we need to do right now. The only missing ingredient is a spirit of innovation, cooperation and resolve amongst our political leaders. From the copper-domed Capitol in Salt Lake City to the halls of power in Washington, our leaders need to reconsider their allegiance to the dirty-fuels industry, stop their bickering, and act boldly to move America toward a new energy economy.
In the coming weeks, Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, can lead the way. As a key member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, he’ll play a pivotal role before Memorial Day in determining whether Congress even gets to vote on the clean-energy jobs bill. Now is the time to let Matheson and all of our leaders know that we expect them to do what’s right for our people, our economy, our land and our future.
Love this ad from the (other) WWF and its agency in Brazil. Very impactful to see a tree and everything related to its existence. If only humans understood things in terms of interconnectivity. Nice to see an agency doing something other that selling shit essential lifechangers like new Microsoft Doodads®…
ps. click image to get full sized version
Background credits:
Released: April 2009
Advertiser: WWF
Agency: DDB BRASIL
Country: Brazil
Category: Public awareness messages
Title of ad: ARVORE / ARRECIFE
Executive Creative Director: Guilherme Jahara, Marcelo Reis, Julio Andery, Rodolfo Sampaio, Sergio Valente
Creative Director: Murilo Melo, Ulisses Razaboni
Copywriter: Renato Ramalho
Arvore photographers:Guto Nóbrega, Sérgio Prado, Murilo Melo, Flávio Brandão
Arrecife photographers: Guto Nóbrega, Sérgio Prado, Murilo Melo
Ilustrator: Quad Studio (Arvore)
Typographer: Nereu Marinho
Art Buyer: Carolina Galastri
Account Director: PolikaTeixeira, Ana Paula Grassmann
Planner: Phillippe Bertrant
Mídia: Fabricio Andrade e Fabiana Manfredi
Advertiser´s Supervisor: Heloisa Helena de Oliveira
The following piece written by Michael Moore appears in this week’s Time magazine (and in full at Time.com ) as part of their annual “Time 100″ issue highlighting their choices for “The World’s Most Influential People.”
Elie Wiesel called him a “God.” His investors called him a “genius.” But, proving correct that old adage from the country and western song, you never really know what goes on behind closed doors.
Bernie Madoff, for at least 20 years, ran a Ponzi scheme on thousands of clients, among them the people you and I would consider the best and brightest. Business leaders, celebrities, charities, even some of his own relatives and his defense attorney were taken for a ride (this has to be the first time a lawyer was hosed by the client).
We’re clearly in one of those historic, game changing years: up is down, red is blue and black is President. Aside from Obama himself, no person will provide a more iconic face of this end-of-capitalism-as-we-know-it year than Bernard Lawrence Madoff.
Which is too bad. Yes, he stole $65 billion from some already quite wealthy people. I know that’s upsetting to them because rich guys like Bernie are not supposed to be stealing from their own kind. Crime, thievery, looting — that’s what happens on the other side of town. The rules of the money game on Park Avenue and Wall Street are comprised of things like charging the public 29% credit card interest, tricking people into taking out a second mortgage they can’t afford, and concocting a student loan system that has graduates in hock for the next 20 years. Now that’s smart business! And it’s legal. That’s where Bernie went wrong — his scheming, his trickery was an outrage both because it was illegal and because he preyed on his side of the tracks.
Had Mr. Madoff just followed the example of his fellow top one-percenters, there were many ways he could have legally multiplied his wealth many times over. Here’s how it’s done. First, threaten your workers that you’ll move their jobs offshore if they don’t agree to reduce their pay and benefits. Then move those jobs offshore. Then place that income on the shores of the Cayman Islands and pay no taxes. Don’t put the money back into your company. Put it into your pocket and the pockets of your shareholders. There! Done! Legal!
But Bernie wanted to play X-games Capitalism, run by the mantra that’s at the core of all capitalistic endeavors: Enough Is Never Enough. You have the right to make as much as you can, and if people are too stupid to read the fine print of their health insurance policy or their GM “100,000-mile warranty,” well, tough luck, losers. Buyers beware!
It would be too easy — and the wrong lesson learned — to put Bernie on TIME’s list all by himself. If Ponzi schemes are such a bad thing, then why have we allowed all of our top banks to deal in credit default swaps and other make-believe rackets? Why did we allow those same banks to create the scam of a sub-prime mortgage? And instead of putting the people responsible in the cell block in Lower Manhattan, where Bernie now resides, why did we give them huge sums of our hard-earned tax dollars to bail them out of their self-inflicted troubles? Bernard Madoff is nothing more than the scab on the wound. He’s also a most-needed and convenient distraction. Where’s the photo on this list of the ex-chairmen of AIG, Merrill Lynch and Citigroup? Where’s the mug shot of Phil Gramm, the senator who wrote the bill to strip the system of its regulations, or of the President who signed that bill? And how ’bout those who ran the fake numbers at the ratings agencies, the lobbyists who succeeded in making sleazy accounting a lawful practice, or the stock market itself — an institution that’s treated like the Holy Sepulchre instead of the casino that it is (and, like all other casinos, the house eventually wins).
And what of Madoff’s clients themselves? What did they think was going on to guarantee them incredible returns on their investments every single year — when no one else on planet Earth was getting anything like that? Some have admitted they did have an inkling “something was up,” but no one really wanted to ask what it was that was making their money grow on trees. They were afraid they might find out it had nothing to do with gardening. Many of Madoff’s victims have told investigators that, over the years, they have made much more than the original investment they gave Bernie. If I buy a stolen car from the guy down the street, the police will take that car from me regardless of whether I knew it was stolen. If I knew it was stolen, then I go to jail for receiving stolen property. Will these “victims” give back their gains that were fraudulently obtained? Will the head of Goldman Sachs reveal what he was doing at the meetings with the Fed chairman and the Treasury secretary before the bailout? Will Bank of America please tell us what they’ve spent $45 billion of our TARP money on?
That’s probably going too far. Better that we just put Bernie on this list.
I pulled the above header from James Kunstler’s latest blog post- “NOTE: HOPE = TRUTH.”
Its a dramatic statement, and somewhat amusing when read within the context of his post. I have mentioned Mr. Kunstler before. His thoughts on the economy and the dwindling “American way of life” are terrifying because he harshly questions many commonplace assumptions that are dear to Americans. His latest post examines the various bailouts and the fact that President Obama isn’t truly facing up to reality. My only point on this is that Obama has taken a good deal of flak recently (admit that we torture? how dare you sir!) so to propose a radical rethink of the very concept of our consumer society at this time would be impossible for him. If the Right are already convinced he’s a pinko commie dragging us straight to hell then imagine how they would react to a true facing up to the facts. People just don’t want to know. People just want things to stay the same, no matter how damaging to the environment, our kids, and ourselves. Its discouraging to know this is our situation. Of course that isn’t a reason to avoid facing and speaking the truth. It just means making a fundamental shift is a massive challenge, especially one where core values and, more importantly, huge amounts of money/profits are concerned. I look forward to hearing comments on this, and his, latest post.
This looks like a very fascinating documentary. Definitely going to watch it tonight, and then get back to more pressing stories, such as Marc Jacob’s workout regime…
What a fucking waste of life. Of course if the police have their way there won’t be any footage or images to record events such as this one. Sorry for this bleak post, but its the world we live in. I’ll try and do some happy/ignorance-is-bliss type posts next.
This, I’m sure, is indulgent, but I need to solve a small mystery. This requires the readers of the ND blog to assist. I have been trying to figure out whether the band pictured in the clip above exists now. I shot that short bit of footage roughly two years ago in Copenhagen- in a well known nightclub which hosts pretty big acts. The band you see here were just starting out, and were cutting their chops doing covers. I loved the drum machine mixed with the live drumming- the music was awesome. They pumped a ton of energy and speed into a song like “Transmission”- I was hooked, and I regret just recording this short piece. Anyhow I chatted with a band member at that time and learned they were newly formed and still undecided on a band name, direction etc. So I am curious if anyone can identify this one small setup amidst an ocean of millions of small musical groups. If someone can help out with this small goal I’m sure we can put up a reward- perhaps a first edition ND garment (cTo?)
What is happening to the UK? This clip is extraordinary- truly amazed this is going on in Britain in 2009. It takes the pain we all feel in dealing with gov’t bureaucracy and pushes it to a whole other level.
