I saw this little bit of high-brow billboard modification while waiting for the B train in Chinatown yesterday, and what fascinates me is the sheer transparency of the artist’s process. It’s hard to tell where he (and I’m sure it’s a he) began, but in looking at his work it’s easy to decipher his artistic intentions.

“See that cup of white liquid? Well that’s going to need a cock-n-balls right there. And the word ‘Appitite?’ Easy. Now it says ‘tit.’ This is working out GREAT so far!”

My only critique is that I would have gone with “ho” instead of “hots” up top. But I guess everyone’s a critic.

What would YOU have done to enhance this ad? To the comments!

Dave Hill - A Renaissance Man for the 21st Century

It pleases me to say that in the coming weeks I’ll be helping the one and only Dave Hill make some enhancements to his internet presence.

If you don’t know about Dave, let this blog post be your gateway into all things Dave Hill. For example, below is a recent piece with David Rakoff called "Stomp!"

I’d also reccommend Dave Hill’s Youtube page, where you’ll find lots of gems, including this classic from Fashion Week:

Oh but the fun’s just getting started. Dave Hill is also the frontman of a severely rocking band called Valley Lodge, which you should be checking out right now. I can wait.

Dave’s also been featured on BoingBoing, not for anything in particular, just for being awesome. I shit you not.

Ok, that’s it for now. If this post doesn’t give Google something to chew on I don’t know what to tell you.

DCF Advertising’s NYC Teen Mindspace Campaign

Yesterday marked the official launch of our teen-focused social marketing campaign for the NYC Department of Health. The campaign centers around a MySpace page and several fictitious NYC teenagers all involved in common yet dangerous situations, such as experimenting with drugs and depression.

It wasn’t easy making the website appealing while also dealing with subject matter usually relegated to after school specials and cringe-inducing PSAs. But with the help of actual NYC high school kids who weighed in during the creative process, I think we managed to make something that’s not “lame.” Hopefully it will do some good.

What I find ironic is the fact that even though the campaign is for mental health awareness, I was about ready to go batshit insane while coding that MySpace page. If anyone’s ever tried to make a customized MySpace page, you know what I’m talking about. It’s not pretty.

Check out the campaign here.

Hi everyone - quick survey. Clasp your hands together like this right now. What’s more comfortable - having your left hand on top or your right hand on top? I want to see if there’s any correlation between your preference and if you’re a righty or a lefty. I’ll go first. To the comments!

I wish I’d gotten a better picture of this, but on Saturday I saw a taxi with a digital camera left accidentally sitting on its roof. This was especially poignant considering I’d recently re-visted the movie Raising Arizona, during which something of a little more value is accidentally left atop a moving vehicle…

Very interesting how similar “No Country for Old Men” is to “Raising Arizona.” See for yourself…

UPDATE - I just made a video comparison of one of the trailer scenes. View it on YouTube here.

Today I cheered my brother on as he took 4th place at Wiimbledon. Click on the photo above to see more!

Yet another reason I love Google Maps.

Not to sound insensitive, but the first crane collapse was WAY cooler.

Network Solutions is HORRIBLE.

I have some serious gripes with Network Solutions’ VPS “service” which I’ll save for another post (basically their VPS service is crippled and can’t send out email), but for now I thought I’d share something a little more immediate and bizarre.

Yesterday while renewing a domain name at Network Solutions (yes, I know it’s overpriced thankyouverymuch) I noticed that they tried to slip me two domains I did NOT want to purchase. These weren’t the typical fare such as “mike-solomon-biz.name” or “value-mike-solomon.es” but - and I shit you not - they actually tried to sell me both http://rgerferferfer.com and http://rgerferferfer.net. And since I don’t have a habit of mashing my fingers against the keyboard, I’m going to call bullshit on them. I seriously wouldn’t put it past them to have a database of crap domains out there (which were probably entered by some fat slob pressing a doughnut into the keypad) which they try to pawn off on people dumb enough to buy or renew a domain name with Network Solutions in the first place. (Yes, I know it’s overpriced thankyouverymuch.)

Anyway, below is a screenshot. Absolute bullshit.

I saw this printer sitting out on the street a few weeks ago. I love the subtle irony here, assuming that the sign was actually printed with the printer being tossed. It’s decent irony, but not perfect irony. (For the record, this is perfect irony - Billionaire roofing exec dies after fall through roof.)

As a sidenote, when I was processing the photo for the web I noticed that there was something printed on the back of the sign. After flipping the image and bumping up the contrast, (as well as saying the word “ENHANCE” a few times), we’re offered a fascinating glimpse into the first draft of this sign. It basically just said the word “WORKS” broken up onto two lines. Why do you think they changed it?

I don’t care how you spent your Saturday night, because my Saturday night was clearly much more entertaining. I saw an Elvis impersonator in a pastry shop in Astoria, Queens. What did you do?

This is an actual cake that was spotted in Chinatown last weekend. I shot it from two different angles so people wouldn’t think it was Photoshopped. Anyone care to guess what it is?

I hope this doesn’t offend anyone, but if you like wine and have never been to snooth.com you’re a fucking idiot.

Full disclosure - my roommate Mark is the CTO of the website. But that doesn’t make it any less awesome, and I’m certainly not getting anything in return for pimping their site. It’s just a really well-done website for learning about the wines you like and the wines you don’t. They have a pretty nifty way of suggesting wines you’ll appreciate based off of how you’ve rated other wines in the past. For example, tonight I’m cozying up with a Salmon Run Pinot Noir even though I just discovered I’m not particularly jazzed about it. So I rated it a 1.5 out of 5 (and wrote the following helpful review) and snooth’s nifty algorithm will suggest for me wines that I won’t think suck in the future. It’s both simple and brilliantly complex. Here’s the review I wrote - care of their “blog it” button that appears after every review you write.

Dr. Frank`s Vinifera Wine Cellars Salmon Run Pinot Noir 2007 (SnoothRank: 0/5)
(April 2008)
Not sure if I'm crazy about this one. It's very light, almost effervescent, but it doesn't do anything. The flavor just sits on my tongue and doesn't go anywhere or blossom into anything. Every sip would be forgettable - although that's not much help given the flashing lights in my rear-view mirror. myRating 1.5/5

DCF Advertising’s Marie Anti-Smoking Campaign

Today marks the launch of our “Marie from the Bronx” anti-smoking campaign for the New York City Health Department. If you’re a New Yorker, in the coming weeks you’ll be seeing a lot of the ads which feature Marie talking about how complications from smoking resulted in her having many of her fingers and her leg amputated. It’s a pretty amazing story, and working with Marie over the last year has been really cool, to say the least.

We just finished creating the DCF Advertising Blog where you can read up on this and some other campaigns we’ve been working on lately. Fun stuff. Now give me a cigarette.

Kidding…

Why does the site look ugly(er than usual)?

I’ve stripped away all my site’s CSS styles in honor of CSS Naked Day. It’s a silly attempt to make web designers feel more appreciated, but in all honestly I do think it’s a pretty creative idea. Plus, I’m naked right now so it just feels right.

Creating a progressive and abstract print ad can be a good thing. But creating an ad that’s so abstract that the dude putting them up can’t tell the damn thing is upside down? Not so good.

Has anyone else noticed that the displays on the new NYC subways seem to use Apple’s Keynote presentation software? If you’ve ever used Keynote, pay attention to the transitions and you’ll recognize all your favorites - Cube, Dissolve, Pop - they’re all there!

Does anyone know if they actually have a little Mac running the show inside every subway, or if it’s just a video file looping?

One of the scariest things in the world.

One of the funniest things in the world.

Hey everyone - miss me? I don’t know how you survived yesterday without a new caption contest, but I’m back from a little vacation (Anna and I went to Mexico) so it’s onward with the caption contests, shit jokes, and other useless diversions.

Case in point - I just discovered another nifty use of Apple’s Time Machine. Ever launch Photoshop and suddenly all the pallets and preferences are set to the default (ie, moron) settings? It happens to me about once every few months. For some reason the preferences file (~/Library/Preferences/Adobe Photoshop CS3 Settings) occasionally gets corrupted and reset to the factory default. But with Time Machine, just browse back to a time when you knew everything was peachy, and restore that sucker. Just worked fine for me.