January 31, 2007 by Brian
As a fan of Adult Swim, I can’t imagine how this promotion for Aqua Teen Hunger Force turned into the biggest scare in Boston since September 11 (as reported by Reuters). Not only is this a complete over-exaggeration by the media covering the story, it is also an over-exaggeration (or maybe just good ‘ole politicking) by Mayor Menino and new governor (and Sarah favorite) Deval Patrick.
Local-Boston television media showed video of bomb squads blowing up the artwork and shots of highway closures. They even reportedly closed the Charles River. After analyzing one, couldn’t the technicians in our most critical emergency responders identify the “devices” as harmless. And why does Boston.com have a breaking news section counting down the number found as if they were mass-destructive weapons.
(see larger version)
I feel bad for local artist Peter Berdvosky, who came up with the campaign of light-bright signs, as he seems to be taking the brunt of the force.
UPDATE (Feb 1, 2006):
Boston.com people talking about it here. And they
caught two suspects (shown from this Globe/
George Rizer Photo here).
UPDATE #2 (Feb 1, 2006): The adultswim website apologizes. Here is a screen grab:
(
click here to enlarge)
January 30, 2007 by youmybabydaddy
So, in case I’m not the only one who cares, here’s the latest Fall Out Boy buzz. They played on a UK show called Friday Night Project and video of the performance shows Pete Wentz displaying a handwritten (well, actually it was written ON his hand) message saying “Almost Live Music.” This has been decoded in two ways. The most common rumor is that the band was asked to play to a prerecorded track, lip synching in other words. They were not too impressed by this, but didn’t want to throw a hiss and piss everyone off by refusing to play. So, integrity intact, Pete writes that on his hand and shows it to the camera when they zoom in on him “singing” like so:
Hard to read with the video still, but you can see it can’t you eagle eyes? Plus, many are saying that he obviously isn’t playing his bass in parts and that he did this on purpose because he refused to pretend for the camera. Again, judge for yourself:
Maybe he just isn’t that good at pretending, who knows? Either way, this is another reason to love Fall Out Boy, they refuse to dupe people unlike most popular artists. The other story (and I believe this to simply be spin control so no one gets mad at Pete for exposing the sad truth of TV performances) is that it was a prerecorded show and so really, the music isn’t live, so he was just pointing THAT out. Bullshit. They have been on numerous other prerecorded shows and what would be the big deal in pointing that out on your hand? Come on now. In another bit of Fall Out Boy vs. retarded media manipulation news, their CD can no longer be sold by Hot Topic. The band loves Hot Topic and always has. Hot Topic is a big Fall Out Boy supporter and carries tons of their merch. Well, the rumor is that Island Records has the power in their contract with the band to determine where the CD is sold. They decided to team up with Aeropostale on a promotion where the new CD is sold for $10 and you get a free T-shirt or something along those lines. Fall Out Boy and Aeropostale are an unlikely pairing. Pretty sure no one in Fall Out Boy would ever have been in an Aeropostale store. Anyway, part of the agreement in this merch promotion is that the CD cannot be sold at any other retail clothing outlet and therefore Hot Topic will no longer be selling the CD and apparently the band members are not so happy with their lack of control. Again, this is hearsay, but the band would never be able to tell this story themselves (try writing that on your hand) so who knows whether it is true, but it certainly is believable. Fight the power yo.
January 23, 2007 by Brian
The Boston Globe, one of the institutions here in Boston was sold to the New York Times group in 1993. And now they are shutting down all their foreign branches, but will send reporters out for “on special projects”. I just don’t see it possible that you can report on the local scene without actually being there. It is a sad day for Boston media.
January 16, 2007 by Brian
Barack Obama, in a video message announced he is putting together an exploratory committee for a run at the 2008 presidential competition. My bet is the official announcement will happen on the Oprah Winfrey show sometime next month.
