Geeks solve world problems. Again.

Three days of New Media arts and music are going down in Jerusalem between Aug 29 & 31 2005. And yes, it's going to be political.

The C.sides Festival is an independent and non-commercial international pow-wow for artists, producers and musicians interested in networking and discussing (no spitting) art, social issues, politics and cultural concern.

We're talking 70 international and local artists addressing the social, political and cultural situation in Jerusalem, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Big up.


* Side bar:
c.sides developed out of a continuous exchange that took place between independent German, Israeli and Palestinian musicians, artists, activists and organizations for human rights and social change in the years 2003-2005.

97.3% of Statistics are made up on TV

Gotta love the French.

Cosmetics giant L'Oreal claimed that its Anti-Wrinkle De-Crease face cream "visibly reduced expression lines" in 76% of women. Wonder where they researched that? But it don't stop there, my bonbon.. No, they also claimed their Perfect Slim anti-cellulite cream "visibly reduced the appearance of cellulite" in a smilarly impressive 71% of women.

The ASA (and arguably, common-sense) begged to differ.

It turned out there just wasn't enough evidence to support either claim, which is now forcing L'Oreal to "amend" the ads. A little dent in le advertising budget, wee wee? Not for L'Oreal, which made £1.4bn profit last year.

But being big, rich and given to making up stats on national telly seems to be a French tradition, 'cause in May Estée Lauder's ad campaign was also found to be a little wrinkley.

Both companies are adamant the ASA is full of stinky frommage and that their claims are scientifically substantiated.

Hmm. Jury's out on that one..

Gotham schmotham..

Illustrator JD Waldman is making his mother (and Batman) proud.

The man's powerful remake of Megillat Esther pays tribute to Manga comics, William Kentridge, African masks and run-of-the-mill Lithuanian folklore. Not to mention DC Comics. Which, jumbled all together, makes for a very original result. Probably the first of its kind for a Jewish fable.

And my, it is beautiful...

Run London.. Run..

www.runlondon.com

Nike's London office had a corker of an idea. They realised the main reason Londoners are so chubby is that a. the weather is crap and b. it makes most 9-to-fivers bloody lazy. The solution to which is rather elementary: kick those fat arses into gear. But be 100 times cooler than that irritating yank Tom "Awaken the dork within" Robbins.

The nicely designed website is a spectacular example of CRM.

Me, Man.. You, Best-Friend's Hot Sister..

http://www.milbestlight.com/swf/game/game1.swf

Ahhh.. a Flash designer with common sense and talent. So rare. Anyway, the game tests one of them fun-da-man-tel traits no guy should be without: the art of the oggle.

Warning: highly, highly, highly addictive. Please, do not click i you are susceptible to obssessive-complusive behaviour.

Art behind enemy lines

Pommie graffiti legend Banksy, droppped by the Occupied Territories last week and left some of his trademark irony on the Wall. Check out the pics of his damn clever design here.

There's more on the man in the "Art Attack" section of Wired mag.

(I dig this man's vibe..)

The Rise of the Hip Heeb

http://www.shoytz.com/

Vot can I say? There’s something about wearing a “Shtetl Fabulous” T that appeals..

http://www.jewschool.com/

Atlanta and NY yids debate and kvetch about some big stuff and a lot of small stuff. Very entertaining, and you can always spot the republicans.

http://www.theyadablog.com/

The world through a yiddisher lens. Friggin hilarious.

http://hasidicreggae.com/

A feller named Matisyahu lays down Hassidic ideals to impressive reggae. The Marleys are apparently miffed another shade of Zionist is stomping on their ground.

<>http://www.douglasrushkoff.com

Doug is a legend on the Net for saying everything everyone else is saying now, only 10 years ago. He’s also a bit paranoid.

http://cinemaj.blogspot.com/

Hip Atlanta yids review films and invite rabbis to do the same with bizarre consequences.

Guilt is no match for soap

Apparently someone saw what you did and you should really just come clean. (This link should take care of the latter.)

http://www.comeclean.com

Another great example of a brand using the web to CONNECT people and not take itself too darn seriously..

God dress America..

There are to sides to your standard American dime:

Heads

They invade countries, make crap movies and have the most ANNOYING accent on Earth. But shoowee, them Yanks know how to get down.. http://www.epiclylaterd.com/tinosbdaymasks.html

Tails

They also drink waaaaay too much. (Like, do NOT get me started on eating..) http://www.viceland.com/issues/v12n6/htdocs/passed_a.php

Flip for it?

The swindlers (part 2)

Thirty years ago Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood gave us the cheekiest example of product placement in history.

They invented a rock band and dressed them up in Viv’s weird threads from her aptly named shop, Sex.

The band was called (…drum-roll please...) “The Sex Pistols”.

<>Apparently neither Malcolm nor Viv thought their band of hopelessly kak musicians would really take off. They figured on a month or two of media attention or maybe a cool story to dine out on. To everyone’s surprise the said “Pistols” could lay a mean ska bass-line and combine it with admirable anarchy. All between pulling zap-signs at the Royal Family and ‘redecorating’ hotel rooms.

Fast forward to 2005 and enter Burger King. The fast-food conglomerate has invented a rock band… who dress up as… fast food. Chickens, to be exact. (Something tells me chicken strips/nuggets are being re-launched…).

The site is http://www.coqroq.com/

<>Needless to say, the music is really bad (unless you actually liked Meatloaf and think WWE costumes are flattering to one's figure). But the site rocks. <>

Now this is how it's done..

http://www.worldchill.com is yet another shining example of why the web is a Communication Tool first, Information Source second.

This could've easily have just turned into another Coca Cola brochure. You know, the usual "win a holiday in Hawaii and a year's supply of Coke." Instead, the site asks every person on this planet to do simple little exercise: input their mood.

Then it works out country averages. Continent averages. Even the friggin planet average. It goes on to make tongue-firmly-in-cheek global mood forecasts: "we're seeing a nice chilled front moving through Carolina today; can't say the same for Baghdad, where the climate is definately buggin'..".

How novel: a brand that uses the Internet's true power. To connect all homosapiens.

What pisses me off is that Coke has made me realise we've all lost the point for the last 15 years or so (bloggers, chat room-holics, IM acrobats and denizens of forum-land, excluded).

Somehow, we all started thinking the Internet was all about convenience + information. A search engine. A news portal. And a gazillion glorified brochures.

When all along it was the biggest conversation on the planet.

Dov is to fashion, what Sting is to pop

http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=14419

Dov Charney is an artist, a self-made millionaire and a sexual time-bomb.. (I might just be his biggest fan).