Uncle Jay Explains the conventions!

For those of you who don't know my Uncle Jay...

My Uncle Jay is a really great person. I like Uncle Jay really a lot. He's a really, really great grown-up person. Anytime I am confused about stuff he does a really, really good job to explain it to me good so it all makes sense. He's the bestest. I like Uncle Jay.

Uncle Jay has his website and he makes video stories for me to learn all about the news each week. I really like my Uncle Jay! You can see him too at UncleJayExplains.com!

I like my Uncle Jay.

And I like his story this week about the conventionses.



p.s. - In case you are dense... this is not really my uncle, but I wish he were! I highly recommend visiting Uncle Jay's website every Monday to get caught up on the week's important news! If you're too lazy to go to the website, you can just subscribe to his video podcast and have it download automatically!

p.p.s. - You definitely need to go view his episode from July 2nd, 2007! This is Uncle Jay at his BEST!

Enjoy!

White House press conference... VAMPIRES EXIST!!!

Urgent News Flash!!!

The White House announces to the press that VAMPIRES ARE REAL!
And... the President is meeting with top officials of a VAMPIRE rights group!

If you don't believe me... Watch it!



And...
Now that the word is out, Vampires are all over the place!

They are now openly dating... see LoveBitten.net!
Openly selling blood alternative beverages... see TruBeverage.com!
Have their own alternative news source... see BloodCopy.com!
And have their own Washington lobbyists... see AmericanVampireLeague.com!

Not that this movement for acceptance is without opposition...
The Fellowship of the Sun is trying to fight back by preserving "the strength and purity of the human race"... organizing an oposition movement and aiming to expose false claims on the part of vampire activists! (see FellowshipoftheSun.org)

I don't want to play politics...
but I think Vampires are AWESOME!

Interview With a Vampire... AWESOME!
Underworld... AWESOME!
Blade... AWESOME!
Night Watch... AWESOME!
And Joss Whedon even made Buffy the Vampire Slayer AWESOME!

In more esoteric fare I also loved... Nadja (produced by David Lynch), and Ultraviolet (the AWESOME British mini-series not the crappy Milla Jovovich movie)


So I'm totally in! Who's with me!



OK....
Confession time...
In case you haven't figured it out yet...
All that stuff at the beginning about Vampires being real...

All lies.

In truth, all the videos and websites noted up front are all just "viral advertising" for a new HBO series coming in the fall. And you may have come across other sly advertisements for these products and services cleverly run in magazines, on Myspace/Facebook/Twitter, or on TV. These ads all seem normal enough ... unless you're really paying attention.

The series called True Blood is based on a series of novels called Southern Vampire, by Charlaine Harris. HBO is also publishing a graphic novel to promote the show. You can find the official HBO website here, or a very helpful fansite at True-Blood.net!

I'm stoked!

How to blog when you're dead...

Despite the fact that he's been dead since 1950...
George Orwell will be starting a daily blog on August 9th!

Read it here - orwelldiaries.wordpress.com

Brain Fodder...

FFF (a.k.a. FormFiftyFive.com) is a killer graphic design blog constantly updated with some really beautiful work to check out. An excellent resource for finding new artists and designers, or browsing for inspiration!


Brian Ulrich is an incredible Chicago-based photographer with a lot of work up on his site, but he also keeps very up to date on his blog... with information about exhibitions, artists of interest, readings, and other relevant bits of information... Plus he has a very extensive listing of sites for other photographers and photo related blogs! - NotIfButWhen.com

Eco-friendly Vintage Fashions...

I was chatting with a friend of mine about her recent business efforts in fashion, and was at first somewhat surprised to hear her summarize by saying something like "Eco-friendly vintage."

I've never heard of such a thing!

But here's her response... There is nothing more eco-friendly than re-using the things that we already have. We reduce waste by saving things from the trash heap. Plus, there is no new production waste and minimal new energy consumption (from production, sales, shipping, etc.)!

A compelling argument!

So here's her thing...
Salvage Life: relevant vintage for wasteless living



She also has a blog and vintage fashions available for sale through her Etsy shop (she is still working on her own online store). A lot of her product is straight vintage, but she also does some pieces that have been altered, or completely re-fashioned from other vintage items.

Jackets, dresses, and more!

Got kids?

If you have kids and you are struggling to teach them the fashionable way of the hipster...

You might have some help this weekend...

Harvey's (of the seatbelt handbag fame) is throwing a party to celebrate their new line of kid sized handbags... and while the thought of getting your kid a $100 handbag induces certain convulsions... There is some other great kid stuff going on at the party!

So you and your chil'en should go get all hipstered up.

Mark & Angie Rebennack of The Outfit will be there hocking their uniquely hip brand of kid fashions, as will Kait Emerson Designs, and Christina Vejar of Modern Frill Photography will be on hand raffling off a free photo sitting!

Lots of stuff... So get stocked up on cool stuff for the kids!


p.s. - For those of you who think you don't know what a Harvey's seatbelt bag is... it's made out of seatbelts... woven together to make a handbag...

I promise that you've seen this:

Worst fashion trend EVER!!!

The latest in vomit-inducing head-worn attire:



To find out more about how you can acquire your own meat hat (you know you want one!), visit www.HatsOfMeat.com

And if you're already hip to the trend... go hang with other like minded freaks at special events.

Miley Cyrus Crisis!

Read The Onion. Read it often. 'nuff said.


Entertainment Scientists Warn Miley Cyrus Will Be Depleted by 2013



p.s. - Did I mention that I was kickin' it w/ Miley at the Pirate Festival last weekend? Apparently she's a draw with the swashbucklin' crowd. Who knew?! Good thing I'm gettin' while the gettin' is good, sounds like she might be "depleted" soon!

Miley & Me at the Pirate Festival

Pirates & Graphic Tees @ LB Sea Festival

MEG mentioned pirates in her post the other day....
I ran into some on Saturday, and I figured I might as well share my recent experience.

For some reason I was compelled to attend the Pirate Festival held this weekend on the Belmont Pier in Long Beach. "Why?!?" you might ask... Because it's PIRATES! If you knew there were pirates about 5 blocks from your home... I bet you'd be there too!

Well...
Maybe I had too high of hopes, but the Pirate festival was lame.
Entertaining maybe (the "pirate" to non-pirate ratio was remarkably high).
But still... really lame.

Except for this beautiful lady:

It kinda felt like the "Pirate Festival" was just an excuse to get advertising in front of all the local pirates (more than I knew existed). In addition to a few vendors selling "actual" pirate wares, there were numerous distinctly pirate vendors such as: artificial lawn installers, local gym memberships, baseball tickets, inflatible bounce-houses for kids, and cable TV.

But it wasn't a total waste...

I did catch this killer local T-shirt vendor... TeedOffTees.com

Not a real exciting website, but great shirts nonetheless.

Now for my rant about Long Beach's "Sea Festival" which organized this atrocity... suffice it to say that this pirate event was in my opinion rather typical of the "The Sea Festival" (which costs the City of Long Beach serious cash every year) which supposedly has organized "more than 90 events" over the course of this summer... such unique and distinctive Long Beach events as the 4th of July!!! Why are my tax dollars paying for 3 different "fireworks watching" parties... At places that are generally open to the public anyways! What the hell! I'm having a 4th of July party! I want to get city funding! The only difference is that corporate sponsors are going to show up at their event and try to sell you stuff! But guaranteed the "Sea Festival" is going to claim that thousands of people showed up just because of their awesome organizing skills and this justifies giving them more money next year. And someone is getting rich on corporate sponsorship in the process.

I'm so over it.