As part of a unique partnership, AIGA SF and Apple Computer, Inc. have teamed up to give AIGA members the opportunity to show the business community the power of graphic design.
JULY 20: STONE YAMASHITA PARTNERS

I’m way interested in SYP and what they are about, so I’ll be heading to this. Anyone else?

Sex-Lexis (great name – assuming you get the reference to Lexis-Nexis) is a dictionary of sexual terms. The link above is to the page C – hilarious just to see the list of terms they recognize.

Back in my younger days of television watching, this was Richard Hatch on Battlestar Galactica.

But now this is who they mean by Richard Hatch.

And this is what they mean by Battlestar Galactica.

I’m sure there’s something clever and French I could cite here (la plus ca change, etc.). Isn’t cultural reverse engineering a lonely game?

(see similar recycling icons as well as what they mean here)

My hair gel comes in a plastic container that doesn’t have any such logo; rather it has a circle with the letters PET in it. For some reason, they aren’t using the standard symbols, and so I really don’t know if I can recycle it. Beauty product/consumer product companies are usually pretty responsive, so I sent an email describing the logo on the package, and the logos that I expect to find, and my concern about being able to recycle their product.

Here’s what they sent back

Thank you for visiting Garnier on the Web.

We do not have prepared information to send you in answer to your specific questions.

We want to assure you that we are committed to the protection and respect of the environment. If you are interested in learning about the significant efforts made by our company, we invite you to consult our website at www.loreal.com. You will find details on our environmental policy under About L’Oreal. The “loreal.com” website is the corporate site of the L’Oreal group of companies worldwide.

I was honestly expecting some info that I could use. Does anyone know the PET-in-a-circle icon? I don’t want to assume and ruin the batch or whatever happens if you send something non-recyclable through the system (and gee aren’t there a lot of mythologies and confused perceptions around what actually happens to stuff we put in the recycling boxes?).

Ah well.

Recent search engine queries leading people to AllThisChiattahChattah

LAW OFFICE OF DAVID ZANARDI ESQUIRE
WWW.EBPP.WELLSFARGO.COM/MORTGAGEPAY
PUFFA PUFFA RICE
ebpp.wellsfargo.com
tony the tiger tiger power
sleep inertia nap
PUFFA PUFFA RICE COMMERCIAL
David Binkowski
Pickle Paraphernalia
yourwellsfargomortgage.com
‘robert Limbrick’
‘horse blow jobs’
stan smits pilkington
Cooter is warning Dukes fans to stay away from the new movie, saying it’s sleazy. ”
Peel-O-Matic
“clydesdales across america”
bicycle racers urination
delorean portland
wellsfargo.com/mortgagepay

I received this spam today

From: [email protected]
To: steve@
Subject: Announcing GIANT SQUID world event survey

Hi

Spirit Quest is a collection of professionals who can succeed in surveying the Giant Squid for the very first time alive and in its own natural habitat.

During surveys other unknown creatures and undiscovered artifacts are likely to be found. This will be seen worldwide on sattelite tv.

I seek now museums and supporting parties to join in sponsorship and other ways for this very important set of expeditions.

The advanced subsea vehicles are designed and tested, ready in storage for final fittings and installation.

I propose the procurement of two 24m sailing ships as each expedition is a duration of 7 months at sea without coming to port. Together these vessels will operate silently 24/7 in all weathers and the subsea vehicles will launch to the great depths required. Both ships will be broadcasting live to the internet as well as documenting evidence for later broadcast.

I look forward to your positive involvement and association with this world class event.

All the best

Roy Dymond MD Principle Spirit Quest

Media Partners www.reverieproductions.com

From Cooter’s Place

THE DUKES MOVIE:
DON’T GO UNLESS THEY CLEAN IT UP!

Hey Y’all,

I thought this would be a good time to let everybody know my feelings about the upcoming ‘Dukes of Hazzard’ feature film, since if it weren’t for the ‘Dukes’ fans, our show would have been long since ‘put out to pasture.’ The folks who love our show have kept it alive and well, despite the lack of respect it has been shown by ‘Hollywood.’

Websites like ours have been an extraordinary means of communication for the ‘Dukes’ community. The power of the internet has enabled us to not only keep the show viable, but to help make it a hit show all over again. CMT is getting record ratings and the kids of America think it is a new show. In our business, it doesn’t get much better than that.

Like our fans, those of us who worked on the show have a special affection for it. For over 25 years we have cared about it, nourished it, and fought for it. And it seems to me that it is time for us to have our voices heard again. From all I have seen and heard, the ‘Dukes’ movie is a sleazy insult to all of us who have cared about the ‘Dukes of Hazzard’ for so long.

You probably know that the creators of this film wanted absolutely nothing to do with the original members of the cast. Doesn’t that seem strange to you, given how popular our show is right now, and how popular our cast still is? After all, our huge success for so many years is the reason they are making the film, and the film, after all, is about us.

In the last few years I reckon I’ve done many hundreds of interviews around the country on radio and television and for dozens of newspapers. I always tell them that ours is a classic family show with positive values, great action, wonderful slapstick comedy, mighty fine country music, and a very gifted cast who had great chemistry. America could tell that we were clearly enjoying what we were doing and for that hour folks could forget their troubles and just have fun along with us. It is exactly the kind of entertainment that families crave right now.

Lately most of the interviewers want to know my opinion of the ‘movie’ version that is coming out in August. I’ve always tried to be candid with my opinions, and when it comes to this film, I think it would be a mistake for me to pull the punches. Like you, I haven’t seen the film, but I have read the script, I’ve talked to a lot of people who worked on the set, and I’ve seen the raunchy t.v. commercial. Frankly, I think the whole project shows an arrogant disrespect for our show, for our cast, for America’s families, and for the sensibilities of the heartland of our country.

Unless they clean it up before the August 5th release date I would strongly recommend that true blue Dukes fans hold their noses and pass this one up. And whatever you do, don’t take any youngsters to see it. As plain as I can put it, the only thing this movie shares with our show is the title. Oh, they do have the General Lee flying through the air, although according to the New York Times, they didn’t even use stunt drivers.

Sure it bothers me that they wanted nothing to do with the cast of our show, but what bothers me much more is the profanity laced script with blatant sexual situations that mocks the good clean family values of our series. Now, anybody who knows me knows that I’m not a prude. But this kind of toilet humor has no place in Hazzard County. Rather than honoring our legendary show, they have chosen to degrade it.

When CMT brought our series back on the air in February of this year, 23 million viewers tuned in on that first weekend. Very few, if any, movies have ever matched those kind of numbers for an opening weekend. Our show is a hit right now! Very young children have fallen in love with the ‘Dukes’ on CMT, just as their parents did 25 years ago. They love the positive values of our show, its wholesome friendliness, and the fact that Bo and Luke are heroes who always make the right moral choice. How can the producers of this film be so cynical, so jaded, so out of touch with America’s heartland as to trash a great family show in this way?

Well, there may not be much we can do, but we have to do all we can. Let’s send them a message: ‘If you don’t clean it up, we’re not going to see it.’ Maybe a kick in their pocketbook will get their attention.

Also check out the events

Fri July15 – Sun July 24-Rick Hurst,”Deputy Cletus Hogg” will be appearing at Cooter’s Place in Gatlinburg,Tn.

Sat July 16 – Sun July 17- Ben Jones “Cooter” and Cooter’s Garage Band and the General Lee will be appearing at The Eastern Connecticut Car Show in Norwich, Conn.

Fri July 22 – Ben Jones, “Cooter” and The General Lee and Cooter’s Garage Band will be appearing at Constants Wharf Park in Suffolk,Va.at 6:30pm

Sat July 23 – Ben Jones “Cooter” and The General Lee and Cooter’s Garage Band will be appearing at The Orange County Fair in Orange County,Va at 3pm

Sat July30 – Cooter’s Garage Band will be performing at Pickin’ by the Pond at Toms Creek Farm and Nursery in Farmer, NC. Come see the The General Lee and take a picture with Ben “Cooter” Jones. (The appearance will be in the evening)

And finally

DUKESFEST 2005 LARGEST FAN GATHERING EVER

Hey Y’all! Miss Alma and I owe a humungous “Thank You!!” to everyone who came to DukesFest 2005 and made it the biggest gathering of fans for any television show ever. It was amazing. Some estimates said that about 40,000 folks spent those two hot days in “Hazzard County”. So thanks to everybody who made the trip, and thanks also to the folks who worked to make the event special, to CMT for bringing the show back on and for helping us get the word out about DukesFest, to all our other sponsors, to our vendors, to the crew at Bristol Motor Speedway and Dragway who hosted the event, to the really fine musicians who played, to the amazing stunt drivers, to our great cast, to everyone who brought General Lees and other “Hazzardous” vehicles, and to the Confederate General Lee Fan Club and the Arkansas Special Olympics. And let’s hear it one more time for the Hazzard County Stunt Team. The stunt show was the culmination of months of work from some very dedicated friends of our show from Charlotte, North Carolina.

Above all, the credit belongs to all of you who have kept the “Dukes”, America’s great family show, alive and well for all these years. Y’all are the best.

As you know, when that many folks congregate there are going to be frustrations and inconveniences. For whatever problems there may have been we promise to learn from them and we thank you for your patience. It seems to me that the Good Lord blessed our event as He has blessed our show and for this we are very thankful

What’s wrong with Six Feet Under? In May 2001, Tad Friend had a long article in The New Yorker (not that I can find online anywhere) about the impending premiere of this show. Alan Ball talked about all the typical TV-writing tropes and how they would stay away from them. I’m pretty sure he mentioned the example of an elderly black or Asian man projecting wisdom, and I’m sure there were others. The point of the writing, he stressed, was to move away from that, into something that was not television. That is the HBO slogan, isn’t it?

Now we watch this week’s episode. A separated wife hires a nanny, and emphasizes that she plans for her to carry in the bottles of water. The nanny arrives and instructed by the wife that the bottles are indeed too heavy for her, so if the nanny could please bring them in when they arrive. Naturally, the nanny doesn’t work out, but the estranged husband appears on the doorstep to drop off the kids, and he’s dutifully carrying the bottled water.

We’ve known these supporting characters for several seasons, through the ups and downs of their relationship (mental illness, meddling siblings, financial struggles, infidelity, lying, etc.) and this particular need – the bottled water – has never been mentioned. It was introduced in the episode purely so it could be wrapped up by the end of the episode. Indeed, the need that the bottled water symbolized was pretty much out of left field as well. Now this kind of lame trickery is exactly what Hollywood is good at. Tell you how to feel, set it up, deliver it. Bang, boom, payoff, done.

Hey, elsewhere in the episode a group of grieving/celebrating women chanted anti-men slogans, but then began to sing. One woman began to sing first, in a quavery and not-very-musical voice. But then others picked up the song, and it gathered strength, musically, as more women joined in, their voices joining together in a lovely and uplifting moment. The voices got better, the initially-quavery singer begins a call-and-response, the camera circles around their candle-lit and Womanly Faces as the song grows.

I think there’s nothing more Hollywood-in-the-past-10-years than that scene.

It seems that they created some founding principles, or a mission/values statement, but they chose not to stick to them. They might have done well to have read Built to Last, a now-classic management book that explains how other business efforts stayed successful, and if I recall, that values statement was part of the common thread.

Quote from an article about pressure being placed on Craiglist to restrict pet ads

“Backyard breeding certainly existed long before Craig, but he’s brought down the barrier of entry to where anyone can (advertise) for free, and it’s having tragic results,” said East Bay SPCA spokeswoman Kirsten Park.

It’s interesting that the SPCA, in opposing the actions of Craigslist, chooses to refer to Craig himself, rather than the similarly-named institution he symbolizes. It seems to be a form of rhetoric that doesn’t quite survive the journey from interview to story to reader. Perhaps it’s that insulting formality one may use…If Mr. Newmark feels that he’s doing this community a service…sort of haughty and bitchy?

Craig is often quoted in articles about Craigslist, but in this case, they talked to someone else at the organization, so the only mention of Craig-the-man was the above quote.

Something about this branding/perception/commnication challenge resonated with me, since I offer a professional service that shares my name. Mine is less tangible that Craig’s, so the confusion or blending is probably more common with me. Yeah, Steve Portigal, the guy that started Steve Portigal! Doesn’t happen too often.

I had previously blogged about how a kind soul at AOL saw my frustrations with ending the torrent of antiSpam messages. Today, another kind soul wrote me. They had seen the complaint, they had investigated on their own and thought that things were worked out, but wanted to check back with me.

I’m so pleased when this happens; I imagine for one of these two folks, if not both, handling this problem when I contacted them through official channels fell within the scope of their job, and I don’t understand why it wasn’t solvable that way, but again I must salute the proactive surfers who are contacting people on their own and troubleshooting outside the system.