If you’re reading this after last week, I guess we’re still here. Or, at least, you are.
And yes, me too, still thinking about the dissemination of ideas through graphic designs and logos and t-shirts.
[Or you could just go a listen to a tune at the Apoplexy Tiny Letter.]
After all that reading about graphic design and suchlike, it turned out that I’d already seen a more interesting article about Subverting The Message. Fashion bloggers, the guy in charge of the branding of DHL in the 90s, the Daily Mail, and Guardianistas BTL were all getting pissy about a new t-shirt being sold by the label Vetements for £185.
Yeah, Vetements had taken the DHL couriers’ t-shirt, extended the stripe around the back, adjusted the fit to be bunched at the waist, and increased the price by 4,111%. And, given the people that annoyed, it was a pretty awesome move.
Y’see, Vetements Georgian leader, Demna Gvasalia, has probably given some thought to what he’s doing here.
“They are hacking the fashion system, and they’re credible [enough] to make these statements of capitalist kitsch.”
The article in the Grauniad expands:
I[Vetements] has staged shows in gay nightclubs and Chinese restaurants in unfashionable areas of Paris since launching in 2014. Previous collections have included a jumper like the ones worn by security guards in France and a mac similar to those worn by German police… Of his aesthetic, a grinning Gvasalia has said: “It’s ugly, that’s why we like it.”
To be honest, if he knows what he’s doing, he’s way ahead of me. Long-suffering readers of the blog may know I did a full-semester seminar – and completed a well-regarded dissertation in the Critical Legal Theory tradition, I might add – in Intellectual Property Theory. These days, I still wonder about whether it’s possible to to make money from art while being an artist, and what the function of IP is in that question.
It’s the sign of a good education that when you’re done, you end up more confused than when you started. Just ask Tristram – Krazy Name, Krazy Guy – Hunt. Son of Baron Hunt of Chesterton, educated at University College School and Trinity College, Tris “took a First in History” and is now director of the V&A Museum.
And, befitting a contemporary of David Mitchell and Robert Webb in the Cambridge Footlights, he’s got a great sense of humour. As his tenure as Shadow Secretary of State for Education attests.
Join apoplectic.me next week, as Trist displays his comedy chops…
[Next week: Stroke Bloke finally figures out graphic design, IP, and everything]
People like Coldplay.
This morning I heard that song they released a bit ago. You know. “If I could ruuuule the world, I’d turn it into a girl” or whatever
And I thought to myself: when that song was written and arranged by whomever wrote and arranged it, and the drummer got his bit, which was basically “hey jim there’s no drums in our next single” what did he say? Did he even get a performance credit for the track? Ok there’s some cymbal swells and stuff but that sounds orchestral not drummery.
Then I remember Steven Tyler in a early 90s doc telling joey Kramer to leave the studio since he could just play the drums on – what – love in an elevator maybe?
And that made me think of the wonderful Metallica documentary “some kind of monster” which is without a doubt the single greatest music documentary movie ever made. Even better than that ginger baker one.
And ginger baker played with fela kuti but that footage is nothing compared to Lars selling his art collection.
And so the rabbit hole goes.
And amazingly despite all this music info in my head, a great new album from iron and wine, a new LCD album called “my life In the bush of ghosts” (no, wait, its American dream right?) and a reasonable new outing from
Broken social scene, the song I can’t get out of my ear this week is: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U9t-slLl30E
Awesome. Where dat hacky sack come from?!
Not gonna lie; I bought A Rush of Blood to the Head when it came out fifteen years ago, in a country far, far away. But my problem isn’t really with Coldplay. It’s with people. Like, Good Feeling Travis were awesome. Then, in that post-OK Computer, then Coldplay, era, they went all indie bedwetter.
And as long-suffering readers will know, I’m the ur-indie bedwetter. But at least I’m bursting into your bedroom and shouting, Hey! Imma wee all over your bed!
[That’s enough, apoplectic.me persona!]
We’re in an in-between viewing place, what with TWM™️ expanding to fill all available time, and going back to the very beginning of Twin Peaks for a run-up to the new stuff. But if you’re still recommending Some Kind of Monster with That Kind of Enthusiasm, I’ll have to find space.
There’s an iTunes gift card in the metaphorical mail, and LCD’s certainly on the list. And BSS up to stuff? Interesting…. But most excitement is reserved for when I get my hands on some Courtney Barnett/Kurt Vile collab…
Yeah our whole household enjoyed sometimes I sit there and think… looking forward to that one too!