Swimmingly - "Here’s How Much It Costs to Propose at Every Major League Baseball Stadium"
Monday, March 31, 2014
Friday, March 28, 2014
Thursday, March 27, 2014
Wu-Tang Clan - "Once Upon a Time in Shaolin"
Forbes - "Why Wu-Tang Will Release Just One Copy Of Its Secret Album"
"The lustrous container was handcrafted over the course of three months by British-Moroccan artist Yahya, whose works have been commissioned by royal families and business leaders around the world. Soon, it will contain a different sort of art piece: the Wu-Tang Clan’s double-album The Wu – Once Upon A Time In Shaolin, recorded in secret over the past few years.
Like the work of a master Impressionist, it will truly be one-of-a-kind—in lieu of a traditional major label or independent launch, the iconic hip-hop collective will make and sell just one copy of the album. And similar to a Monet or a Degas, the price tag will be a multimillion-dollar figure.
“We’re about to sell an album like nobody else sold it before,” says Robert “RZA” Diggs, the first Wu-Tang member to speak on record about Once Upon A Time In Shaolin, in an exclusive interview with FORBES. “We’re about to put out a piece of art like nobody else has done in the history of [modern] music. We’re making a single-sale collector’s item. This is like somebody having the scepter of an Egyptian king.”
Wu-Tang’s aim is to use the album as a springboard for the reconsideration of music as art..."
Sunday, March 23, 2014
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Saturday, March 15, 2014
Minor League Baseball Hype Marketing
Buzzfeed - "A Minor League Baseball Team Just Unveiled "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle" Jerseys And They Are Fantastic"
The Fresno Grizzlies have "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" inspired jerseys and the Toledo Mud Hens have "Ghostbusters" inspired ones.
Coca Cola's Recipe
The recipe:
Fluid extract of Coca: 3 drams USP *
Citric acid: 3 oz
Caffeine: 1 oz
Sugar: 30 (unclear quantity)
Water: 2.5 gal
Lime juice: 2 pints, 1 quart
Vanilla: 1 oz
Caramel: 1.5 oz or more for color
The secret 7X flavor (use 2 oz of flavor to 5 gals syrup):
Alcohol: 8 oz
Orange oil: 20 drops
Lemon oil: 30 drops
Nutmeg oil: 10 drops
Coriander: 5 drops
Neroli: 10 drops
Cinnamon: 10 drops
"Coke has become infamous in guarding their secret recipe with tales of the recipe being under 24 hour surveillance, Coca-Cola executives only knowing half the formula or that the two people who know the recipe can never fly together. It's added to the allure of Coke, for sure, but there's also some truth to the that. When Asa Candler, an early Coke President, bought the original formula from Pemberton in 1887, he was so paranoid about people stealing the recipe that he ordered that the recipe could never be written down again. He also removed all labels from the ingredient bottles and went through company mail to see if anyone was snitching."
*"Truth be told though, it's impossible to fully replicate Coke's recipe because there's one ingredient only Coca-Cola can get: fluid extract of coca (which is coca leaves stripped of cocaine). Only one factory can process those leaves and only Coca-Cola has a special deal with the DEA that allows them to use it. So even if the secret is out, we're still missing the Coke in our Cola."
Monday, March 10, 2014
Saturday, March 8, 2014
Chocolate Chip Cookie Milk Shots
Eater - "Dominique Ansel to Debut Milk & Cookie Shots at SXSW"
"Soon after announcing that he'd be bringing his mania-inducing Cronuts to Austin's SXSW, the NYC pastry chef has revealed via Instagram his latest dessert creation which he'll debut at the festival: Chocolate Chip Cookie Milk Shots. Reps from Dominique Ansel Bakery tell Eater about the inspiration for the dessert — a chocolate cookie "glass" containing a "shot" of milk — came after Ansel tried his first Oreo "a few weeks ago" and was encouraged to eat it with milk, which is not "a natural combination in French culture."
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
2014 World Cup Kits
Brazil.
Courtesy of Footy Headlines.
Croatia.
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Mexico.
Cameroon.
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Defending World Champion Spain.
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Netherlands.
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Colombia.
Ivory Coast. Cote D'Ivoire.
Switzerland.
France.
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Argentina.
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Germany.
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Portugal.
Ghana.
USA.
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Russia.
Sunday, March 2, 2014
The Future of the Union Jack
The Guardian - "The union jack: how can a redesign do it justice?"
"If Scottish independence comes about, the union jack will need a new look. But how can anything compare with this pop-iconic flag?"
Schoolboy Q
Grantland - "Schoolboy Q’s Hunger Pains"
by Amos Barshad
"It’s a mid-December afternoon in New York and his new album, Oxymoron, will be out in less than two months. Oxymoron is not only his major-label debut, but also the first release from empire-building Los Angeles label Top Dawg Entertainment since Kendrick Lamar’s Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City blazed into the pantheon. Q got his start as Kendrick’s hype man, earning $200 a show, until he decided to cop the spotlight for himself — and then actually briefly surged ahead in the internal TDE arms race. In 2012, Q’s gloriously reckless “Hands on the Wheel” was getting radio spins while Kendrick was still a mixtape wiz. Then Good Kid dropped, and the debate became moot.
Ever since, Q’s been up next. It’s an unfamiliar hip-hop narrative. Traditionally, one dude gets in the party, then props open the backdoor for his buddies. Sometimes, a buddy works hard enough to get to hang out for a while;1 sometimes, a buddy damn near steals the party.2 More often than not, though, the buddies eventually get laughed out of the room. For rap nerds, these failed backdoor-enterers live in infamy, their names bandied about for fan cred: I have a signed Tony Yayo laminated photo! I celebrate Gudda Gudda’s entire catalogue!
But that’s not what’s happening here. Q and Kendrick came up together, just another couple of MCs in America dreaming of domination. That Kendrick actually got there now seems preordained. How could a talent like this — who makes the English language his plaything, who reimagines his come-up as banger after banger — end up as anything other than his generation’s Jay Z? Q’s got a different viewpoint, though. He appreciates his friend’s innumerable talents, of course. But he’s been right there the whole time. He might not have Kendrick’s salesman mentality; he might not care as much to clean up his act. But still: How can he not see this whole “rap superstardom” thing as imminently reachable?
Over the past year, in interview after interview, Q has been unable to escape the specter of Kendrick. Not that he’s shied away, either. Again and again, he’s said, in so many words: I want what Kendrick’s got. I will have what Kendrick’s got."
The Quaalude Scene
Fast Company - "The Turning Point: How "The Wolf of Wall Street" Found Its Ferocity"
"In the run-up to the 86th Academy Awards, Oscar-nominated screenwriter Terence Winter explains the choices he made with Martin Scorsese that turned Wolf into a tour de force."
"Originally, [the Quaalude scene] was two separate scenes. The part where Jordan rescues Donnie and saves him from choking was originally later in the movie, after Jordan had gotten sober. Donnie was high and challenged Jordan to a race and they're swimming. Jordan looks down and Donnie's at the bottom of the pool and he has to pull him out and save him. But then we were talking about the whole wonderful energy of the first part of that scene earlier in the movie, where Jordan's at the country club and he passes out and has to get home, how funny that was. Leo said he wanted to keep that insane sequence going. We talked about the wonderful part in Goodfellas where Ray Liotta has that one crazy day where he has to get to the hospital, make the sauce, and get the drug dealers to the airport. Leo said what if there was a way to put Jonah's character choking at the end of this scene. And we talked about it and decided the only problem is, Jordan’s so high, how would he rescue Donnie unless, of course, he did more cocaine, to counteract the effects of the Quaaludes. I said that it's sort of like Popeye eating spinach. And then we thought, what if it's actually Popeye who motivates it--that it's on TV, and that's where he gets the idea. We were laughing and Marty said to try it, so I went off and worked on it for a couple of days. Then we got together again, we read it out loud, we were laughing hysterically, and we said “Let's do this.”
In the last six weeks prior to actual production, I met with Marty and Leo pretty much every single day. We met at three in the afternoon and worked until one in the morning. We went through the script line by line, word by word, reading it aloud, acting out the parts, talking about “Is there a better line? Is there a better way to say this? Because this is for keeps, this is gonna be the movie.” We really continued to play with it until it went live, changing the voiceover at the last minute, trying to get it just right. It's never done until it's completely done.
"Jared Leto on his phone during a date through the years"
OldLoves.Tumblr.com
"from top
with Cameron Diaz, circa 2003
with Scarlett Johansson, circa 2005
with Lydia Hearst, circa 2008
with Nina Senicar, 2011"
The Manhattan El Train
A Continuous Lean - "Clanking Locomotives on Bowery | The Third Ave. El Train."
"Long before the L Train became one of New York City’s central arteries shuttling straphangers between Manhattan and the steadily gentrified neighborhoods of Northern Brooklyn, there was the El Train, an elevated rail line perched above Third Avenue. The El (which as you might have guessed was short for Elevated) was founded by the New York Elevated Railway Company in 1875, becoming the city’s second such line, alongside the NYERC’s Ninth Avenue Line. The service initially ran from the South Ferry to the foot of Harlem, but was expanded after being purchased by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company in the early 1900′s.
The IRT owned and operated all the above ground lines in Manhattan, but by the 30′s and 40′s, with the steady growth of the city’s burgeoning subway system these elevated lines were labeled as an archaic nuisance. The Ninth, Sixth, and Second Avenue lines were swiftly shut down, but the Third Ave. line preserved, hanging on until the 50′s, making it the last entirely above ground train in the city. New York’s subway line now takes the “out of sight, out of mind” approach, which some might say takes away from the character of the city, but the air is cleaner and things are a bit quieter these days from the Bronx all the way down to the Bowery."
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