12am.com.au : Mixing Music Media


	.: So Hot Right Now...

date: 4th March 2005
columnist: Margaux

So Hot…
THE LATEST TRENDS IN READY-TO-WEAR
The Pool Trade Show in Las Vegas, the more alternative, “younger” sibling to MAGIC (MAGIC TC), was chock-full of innovative design teams and companies vying to capture the eyes of buyers. Here are some of our picks:
T-Shirts: Here are a few of the designers we felt brought a breath of fresh air to this overly-saturated market:
• The designers at Altru (www.altruapparel.com) take Polaroid type pictures of classic American images (a can of StarKist tuna, the Eveready “9 Lives” battery logo) and LA-specific locations (e.g. Pink’s Hot Dog stand and Canter’s Deli) and then superimpose them onto their shirts.
• Soft service (www.servicestudio.com) designers hand paint geometric shapes onto their shirts and then machine stitch everyday images of cars, farm animals and plants over them.
• US Rags and sister company California Sol are bringing back hippie style with their line of psychedelic tees and tanks tops made out of vintage fabrics.
• Bourne’s “Lost” line (www.bourneclothing.com) has descriptions of run-away/wayward animals that the wearer is “looking” for.
• Oldliner t-shirts sport traditional Japanese images re-invented by artists of a younger generation and are hand died in kimono factories with charcoal, rare dyes and tea extracts.
• We also saw some cool embroidered t-shirts with American Indian motifs from JW, Los Angeles.

CLOTHING WITH A CAUSE
With people continually saying that they want to give back to the world, but at the same time feeling a bit too overwhelmed with their own lives to figure out how, the following clothing designers are creating “clothing with a conscience”.
• Shared (www.weshared.com) is a Canadian company that not only knocks out uniquely cool threads (e.g. vintage boys’ blazers reworked for women), they also share their profits by donating 50% to the buyer/retailer’s charity of choice.
• Headline Shirts (www.headlineshirts.com) creates provocative new designs every six weeks inspired by current and controversial headline news stories. They also contribute a portion of their sales to various nonprofit organizations.
• Twice-Shy (www.twice-shy.com) is an organic fashion line that makes a social statement, or in their own words, “clothing for sinners”; all pieces are constructed with 100% organic cotton and dye.
• Ecoist (www.ecoist.com) handbags are super-cute, colorful, unique…and made out of recycled snack bags, soda labels and candy wrappers.

THE GREAT OUTDOORS
As we’ve written about before (The Great Outdoors TC), several companies seemed headed for the hills.
• Monitaly (www.megcompany.com) showcased big, flannel lumberjack coats, wild tapestry pants and quilted Western-looking shirts in bright colors.
• Outdoor Terrier (www.agencymzone.com) is a collection inspired by “Benji” (the famous Jack Russell Terrier). Their outdoor-themed line (lots of flannel pieces and t-shirts with painted on woodsy murals) seemed made for those who love the wilderness.
• Mary Meyer’s (www.marymeyerclothing.com) clothing and accessories seem made for earth goddesses. The Fall 2005 line is full of comfy knit and textured pieces in natural colours.

MOVE TOGETHER
The latest single from the former Bardot Chanteuse is a funky junky house track that'll be huge in the clubs and across radio/tv land and features remixes & production from the UK's SOLITAIRE ('I Like Love (I Love Love)' & 'I'm Thinking Of You'). Belinda has been extremely active on the music scene of late to rave reviews and you can check her out in her forthcoming performances:

11th March @ TRL / MTV (with Solitaire & Static Revenger)
19th March @ the AAMI Golden Slipper Day @ Rosehill Gardens

SIMPLE MATTERS
Daughterboy Jao prefer a little mystery. “It’s hard to get people intrigued these days,” singer/guitarist Oliver Jao Smith notes, and I quite agree… It’s hard to care when everyone’s got something to sell. So here’s all you need to know. DBJ was essentially a duo thing, “a boy-girl attack” (with music instead of guns, says Oliver, mercifully) that was inspired by Bonnie and Clyde. A boy, a girl, a guitar, a bass: what better way to take on the world? Well – with a drummer, actually. So after various hassles and adventures Oliver and bassist Emma Forrest found Dave Nicholls in mid-2004 and emerged anew as a triple threat. Or rather he found them, walking up after a gig and informing them he could do a better job than the guy they were playing with. Turns out he was right. They live in Melbourne, somewhere, and ‘Jao’ (pronounced jay-o) is Oliver’s real middle name. Simple Matters was recorded direct to 2-inch tape at Sydney’s Bigjesusburger studios by Paul McKercher, leaving generous space in the mix for the songs to do what they do. He avoided over-complications or high-polish, revealing instead a directness that’s not a simple matter to nail at all. Twelve songs, just over half an hour, taut playing, raw energy, no filler. This is an album that knows what it wants to do, does it, and gets out. Get it now.

So Not…
BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE
Especially from grumpy old bartenders in woop woop that can’t pour a Kilkenny!

PETROL PRICES
What is up with that (apart from the cost of course)?

CHANGING MY ASSIGNMENT TOPIC
From library books that couldn’t be found to no searches found in Google, just couldn’t find enough info on the unpainted limestone bust of Nefertiti, Egyptian queen clouded with mystery indeed….(spooky!)

OUTGROWING FRINGES
Don’t you hate it when your hair jabs you in the eye? The sexy side sweep so not doing anything for me!

BREAKING MY NAIL
I know what you’re thinking, but its real and it hurts!

So What…

What can you do to piss people off? 101 ways…

1. Sing the Batman theme incessantly.

2. In the memo field of all your checks, write "for sensual massage."

3. Specify that your drive-through order is "to go."

4. Learn Morse code, and have conversations with friends in public consisting entirely of "Beeeep Bip Bip Beeep Bip..."

5. If you have a glass eye, tap on it occasionally with your pen while talking to others.

6. Amuse yourself for endless hours by hooking a camcorder to your TV and then pointing it at the screen.

7. Speak only in a "robot" voice.

8. Push all the flat Lego pieces together tightly.

9. Start each meal by conspicuously licking all your food, and announce that this is so no one will "swipe your grub".

10. Leave the copy machine set to reduce 200%, extra dark, 17 inch paper, 98 copies.

11. Stomp on little plastic ketchup packets.

12. Sniffle incessantly.

13. Leave your turn signal on for fifty miles.

14. Name your dog "Dog."

15. Insist on keeping your car windshield wipers running in all weather conditions "to keep them tuned up."

16. Reply to everything someone says with "that's what YOU think."

17. Claim that you must always wear a bicycle helmet as part of your "astronaut training."

18. Declare your apartment an independent nation, and sue your neighbors upstairs for "violating your airspace".

19. Forget the punchline to a long joke, but assure the listener it was a "real hoot."

20. Follow a few paces behind someone, spraying everything they touch with Lysol.

21. Practice making fax and modem noises.

22. Highlight irrelevant information in scientific papers and "cc:" them to your boss.

23. Make beeping noises when a large person backs up.

24. Invent nonsense computer jargon in conversations, and see if people play along to avoid the appearance of ignorance.

25. Erect an elaborate network of ropes in your backyard, and tell the neighbors you are a "spider person."

26. Finish all your sentences with the words "in accordance with prophesy." 27. Wear a special hip holster for your remote control.

28. Do not add any inflection to the end of your sentences, producing awkward silences with the impression that you'll be saying more any moment.

29. Signal that a conversation is over by clamping your hands over your ears.

30. Disassemble your pen and "accidentally" flip the ink cartridge across the room.

31. Give a play-by-play account of a persons every action in a nasal Howard Cosell voice. 32. Holler random numbers while someone is counting.

33. Adjust the tint on your TV so that all the people are green, and insist to others that you "like it that way." 34. Drum on every available surface.

35. Staple papers in the middle of the page.

36. Ask 1-800 operators for dates.

37. Produce a rental video consisting entirely of dire FBI copyright warnings. 38. Sew anti-theft detector strips into peoples backpacks.

39. Hide dairy products in inaccessible places.

40. Write the surprise ending to a novel on its first page.

41. Set alarms for random times.

42. Order a side of pork rinds with your filet mignon.

43. Instead of Gallo, serve Night Train next Thanksgiving.

44. Publicly investigate just how slowly you can make a "croaking" noise.

45. Honk and wave to strangers.

46. Dress only in clothes colored Hunters Orange.

47. Change channels five minutes before the end of every show.

48. Tape pieces of "Sweating to the Oldies" over climactic parts of rental movies.

49. Wear your pants backwards.

50. Decline to be seated at a restaurant, and simply eat their complimentary mints by the cash register.

51. Begin all your sentences with "ooh la la!"

52. ONLY TYPE IN UPPERCASE.

53. only type in lowercase.

54. dont use any punctuation either

55. Buy a large quantity of orange traffic cones and reroute whole streets.

56. Pay for your dinner with pennies.

57. Tie jingle bells to all your clothes.

58. Repeat everything someone says, as a question.

59. Write "X - BURIED TREASURE" in random spots on all of someone's roadmaps.

60. Inform everyone you meet of your personal Kennedy assassination/UFO/ O.J Simpson conspiracy theories.

61. Repeat the following conversation a dozen times: "Do you hear that?" "What?" "Never mind, its gone now."

62. Light road flares on a birthday cake.

63. Wander around a restaurant, asking other diners for their parsley.

64. Leave tips in Bolivian currency.

65. Demand that everyone address you as "Conquistador."

66. At the laundromat, use one dryer for each of your socks.

67. When Christmas caroling, sing "Jingle Bells, Batman smells" until physically restrained.

68. Wear a cape that says "Magnificent One."

69. As much as possible, skip rather than walk.

70. Stand over someone's shoulder, mumbling, as they read.

71. Pretend your computer's mouse is a CB radio, and talk to it.

72. Try playing the William Tell Overture by tapping on the bottom of your chin. When nearly done, announce "no, wait, I messed it up," and repeat.

73. Drive half a block.

74. Inform others that they exist only in your imagination.

75. Ask people what gender they are.

76. Lick the filling out of all the Oreos, and place the cookie parts back. 77. Cultivate a Norwegian accent. If Norwegian, affect a Southern drawl.

78. Routinely handcuff yourself to furniture, informing the curious that you don't want to fall off "in case the big one comes".

79. Deliberately hum songs that will remain lodged in co-workers brains, such as "Feliz Navidad", the Archies "Sugar" or the Mr. Rogers theme song.

80. While making presentations, occasionally bob your head. like a parakeet.

81. Lie obviously about trivial things such as the time of day.

82. Leave your Christmas lights up and lit until September.

83. Change your name to "AaJohn Aaaaasmith" for the great glory of being first in the phone book. Claim it's a Hawaiian name, and demand that people pronounce each "a."

84. Sit in your front yard pointing a hair dryer at passing cars to see if they slow down.

85. Chew on pens that you've borrowed.

86. Wear a LOT of cologne.

87. Listen to 33rpm records at 45rpm speed, and claim the faster speed is necessary because of your "superior mental processing."

88. Sing along at the opera.

89. Mow your lawn with scissors.

90. At a golf tournament, chant "swing-batabatabata-suhWING-batter!"

91. Ask the waitress for an extra seat for your "imaginary friend."

92. Go to a poetry recital and ask why each poem doesn't rhyme.

93. Ask your co-workers mysterious questions, and then scribble their answers in a notebook. Mutter something about "psychological profiles."

94. Stare at static on the TV and claim you can see a "magic picture."

95. Select the same song on the jukebox fifty times.

96. Never make eye contact.

97. Never break eye contact.

98. Construct elaborate "crop circles" in your front lawn.

99. Construct your own pretend "tricorder," and "scan" people with it, announcing the results.

100. Make appointments for the 31st of September.

101. Invite lots of people to other people's parties.

“If people screw me, I screw back in spades.”
-Donald Trump

You feelin’ me? Forward all bribes, blackmails and bootycalls to margaux@12am.com.au

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