The Front Fell Off

This is pretty damn funny. I wonder if the Australian senator even believes a word of what he's saying.

And yes, it's real.

Update: No, it's not real.

Ted Kennedy screenprint by Andy Warhol

I just came across this silkscreened portrait by Andy Warhol, created in 1980 for Ted Kennedy’s campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. I guess having famous contemporary artists do campaign work is not a new thing, eh?

From Art Knowledge News:

Known for his oratorical skills, Kennedy's 1968 eulogy for his brother Robert and his 1980 Democratic National Convention rallying cry for American liberalism were among his best-known speeches. He became known as "The Lion of the Senate" through his long tenure and influence. More than 300 bills that Kennedy and his staff wrote were enacted into law. He was known for working with Republicans and finding compromises among senators with disparate views. Kennedy played a major role in passing many laws, including laws addressing immigration, cancer research, health insurance, apartheid, disability discrimination, AIDS care, civil rights, mental health benefits, children's health insurance, education and volunteering. In the 2000s, he led several unsuccessful immigration reform efforts. At the time of his death, he was continuing to work on universal health care legislation, which is often described as his "life's work".

Space Race

Today is the 40th anniversary of the Moon landing. Jason Kottke has a nice roundup of all things Apollo 11-related on the web. The New York Times has a cool photo/video slideshow of all the amazing things that happened in 1969 pop culture. And our friends at TreeHugger ask if the Apollo project can teach us anything about what we should do about today's environmental problems.

Image by Mark Weaver.

Jon Stewart talks Food, Inc.

If I know you, it's unlikely that you're going to sit down and watch the documentary Food, Inc. like you probably should. Maybe at least you'll take something away from this Daily Show interview with the filmmaker, Robert Kenner.

In love with A. Lincoln

This illustrated tribute to Abraham Lincoln is a must-read. By Maria Kalman.

States United: A unifying image for Obama

Ad man Greg Beauchamp has assembled this lovely image and posted it to Flickr with a personal message for President Obama.

the way i see it, it's time for some heart. the fix to the problems begins by fixing ourselves. we need an approach of hope, not fear. we need not imagine the lines that divide us, but see the loves that unify us...

Beauchamp was also responsible these brilliant McCain dog poo flags.

America, redesigned

Barack Obama is the 44th President of the United States. Be sure to take a look at the new WhiteHouse.gov website, which will be "a central part of President Obama's pledge to make his the most transparent and accountable administration in American history." Among other features, it has a blog, weekly video addresses, and a nice slideshow of presidents.

Also, don't miss The New York Times' great photographic series, Obama's People. And in case you missed it or want to see it again, here's the Inaugural Address.

Afghanistan: Peace through accordions

This just in... Afghans love accordion music.

The Story of Stuff

The Story of Stuff is an award winning 20-minute video on consumption and sustainability. In the spirit of its one-year anniversary, they've launched an international site where the movie is subtitled in several languages. If you haven't watched it yet, you really should.

Redford on Saving the Redrock

According to a government official, "the Bush Administration is on pace to do almost as much damage to our environment in its last eight weeks in office as it did over the last eight years." Actor/director/activist Robert Redford sent out a message today trying to stop one of the Bush Administration's final "Fuck yous" to our environment, a plan to auction off Utah's Redrock wilderness to oil and gas speculators...

"The Bush Administration cynically chose Election Day to
advance an outrageous plan that will sell off leases for some
160,000 acres of spectacular Utah canyonlands to oil and gas
speculators.

While America was voting for Barack Obama and his vision of a
clean energy future, Bush and Cheney's underlings were
conspiring to plunder one of the crown jewels of our natural
heritage for their fossil fuel cronies.

The auction of Redrock country will take place on December 19.
At stake are world-renowned vistas near Canyonlands and Arches
National Parks, as well as near Dinosaur National Monument. The
highest bidders will earn the right to turn vast tracts of
pristine wilderness into industrial wastelands.

It's bad enough that Bush officials went behind the backs of the
American people with this disastrous scheme. But what's worse,
they didn't even tell their own National Park Service until
after the fact."

Tell the Bush Administration to cancel the Redrock auction!

The image above is from the outstanding 1972 Sydney Pollack-directed mountain man movie, Jeremiah Johnson, which was filmed in Robert Redford's adopted home state of Utah.

2006 Ford Escape Hybrid Ad

Can you believe this ad is almost three years old already? I still like it, even though it's kind of ridiculous to call any car green. Plus, Kermit totally sold out. But as the American auto industry currently looks like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off, I can't help wondering what happened to the promise of more vehicles like this? Why isn't the Escape Hybrid the best selling car in the U.S.? It's roomy, all-wheel drive, fuel-efficient, and (mostly) American-made. Were they poorly marketed? Or are consumers really that short-sighted that they want an F-150 when gas prices are low and a Prius when gas prices are high?

Now the automakers need a huge loan for "retooling" to make efficient vehicles. It's not like they don't know how to make them. They sell efficient cars in Europe and South America, where there's more tax on gasoline. Should America have a higher tax on gas to keep consumption down? The money could go towards lower income tax, carbon offsets, infrastructure and public transportation. But I can already hear the wave of backlash to that idea, especially during a recession. Higher fuel efficiency standards could help, but the lower cost of filling up would probably just make some people drive more.

Michael Moore has an interesting proposal to force the automakers to put the taxpayer money towards efficient vehicles, and having them build the public transportation systems we need. But I know a lot of free market types would be against that too. So how about this... Instead of our only choice being gasoline, why don't we have the choice of gasoline, diesel, biofuels, electric, and natural gas? Instead of continuing this stranglehold of Big Oil, we could actually let the consumers choose which is most efficient. We can even choose on a daily basis how we want to fuel our cars with plug-in hybrids and flex-fuel vehicles. Total free market solution. We just need government to stop listening to the monopoly and start letting the people choose.

Once again, I'm proud of America's choice of an inspirational leader who appears to make intelligent and sustainable decisions based on what is best for average Americans (and he plays it cool). We've decided to change. Now let's do it.

Repower America

We have elected Barack Obama as our 44th president... What's next? Al Gore just wrote in The New York Times that we now have The Climate for Change. And with that, his We Campaign has produced this new spot along with a detailed new website focused on the plan to Repower America. Now if he would just grow that damn beard back!

November 4, 2008

I've tried not to focus too much on the racial issues in this election, mostly because I don't think anyone should vote for a person based on their skin color. But this is obviously a momentous time when our multicultural nation has finally elected someone other than an old white guy as our leader. I thought the illustration above by Patrick Moberg did a nice job of showing how America has truly been rebranded. It also shows that it's been a while since we've had a prez with any cool facial hair. Click image to enlarge.


Chris Rock had some great stand-up this year on race and the election...



And as Tracy Morgan so eloquently put it, "Black is the new president, bitch."

President-Elect Barack Obama

Today is a proud day. America has hit the reboot button. We have chosen hope for a new direction at home and abroad. We have chosen hope for prosperity and independence, science and technology, civility and unity. We have chosen Barack Obama as our next president of the United States of America.

I think we can all breathe a sigh of relief that this process is finally over. If you didn't catch it last night, both John McCain and Barack Obama gave great speeches about putting the partisanship behind us and coming together as one nation.

The poster shown above was found at Design for Obama. It refers to the Obama campaign's typeface of choice, Gotham by Hoefler & Frere-Jones.

I FARTED

A new "hit" video by my coworker, Gabe Gathman.

Get Out and Vote!

Yaaay... Vote Day is here! Let's do it.

Signs of Hope & Change

Regardless of the outcome Tuesday, this is a nice little campaign recap for you Obama supporters. It's a bit sappy, but still kind of nice. It helps that they made a great song choice with Fake Empire by The National. The rest of you can check them out on Letterman.

Wilco on Colbert

Check out last Thursday's Colbert Report for an interview with Wilco's Jeff Tweedy and a performance of "Wilco the Song." Also, you can grab a free Dylan cover they performed with Fleet Foxes on Wilco's website. The only catch is that you have to promise to vote. No wait, not just vote, but rock the vote!

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

This is a nice typographic treatment recognizing the 60th anniversary of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a document ratified by the United Nations on December 10, 1948. It's interesting that the message still holds up very well today, and that while most people can agree on these rights, we still have very different opinions about how to protect them.

More info at Cool Hunting.

Wassup

This is pretty clever. They got all the guys from the original Budweiser Wazzup commercial eight years ago to do this ad for change. It's even funnier when you think about the fact that Cindy McCain is chair of one of the largest Anheuser-Busch distributors in the country.