maggie+media

(via livejamie)

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:14:39 -0500

Advice from SXSW Pros

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:09:07 -0500

I have never been to SXSW, but excited to head down this year for SXSW 2010. In preparation for my time in Austin I polled a few friends to get their advice and thought I would share it here.

…

david: To the 4 million folks behind these numbers: You’re...

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:06:32 -0500

david:

To the 4 million folks behind these numbers: You’re amazing. It’s because of you we have the greatest jobs in the world. We are eternally grateful.

To our strapping team back in New York (I’m in Florida for something!): It’s an honor to work with people so much smarter than me, that are so good looking.

Thank you.

I’ve been doing some thinking about book merchandise in...

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:29:56 -0500

I’ve been doing some thinking about book merchandise in the past week and have loved that this and the classic book cover tshirts have both popped up in my Tumblr feed. Maybe the universe is trying to tell me I’m doing something right. (via debbiestier)

I like this ad made by TBWA for Michelin, although at first I...

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:14:23 -0500

I like this ad made by TBWA for Michelin, although at first I was a little torn.

On the one hand, it’s a cute concept that actually does serve a purpose related to the product’s efficacy (more unusual than you might think!). And aesthetically it’s interesting—much more so than most car commercials. I am so over watching slow-motion computer animations of water being channeled away by tire treads.

On the other, my first reaction—and what prompted me to blog about it—to it was: “wow, they’re really ripping off all the buzz around Alice in Wonderland.” Look at the trees in the ad, then this movie poster:

And the ad bunny’s bulging eyes…

…that are disproportionate to his body? (As well as the disproportionately small car?)

Plus, the Matrix-inspired camera action calls to mind the visual effects that anyone who’s seen a trailer or commercial for Tim Burton’s movie will recognize.

Interesting, no? When I dug a little deeper, I saw that the first commercial from this campaign appeared earlier in 2009, and time-wise I’m not entirely sure how it relates to the unveiling of the “Alice in Wonderland” images/leaks. But it seems implausible that it’s ripping as straight from Tim Burton’s mind as I imagined (although I’d argue the campaign’s aesthetic owes something—or a lot of things—to Tim Burton’s oeuvre).

Regardless of the creative overlap I like this commercial and ad campaign. It recognizes that not all people who buy tires are men who are all “beer, rotary blades, football.” So, even though the reason this ad caught my ad because it was so artistically unoriginal, in the end I like it because, for what it’s advertising, it’s original and smart.

kratlee: paperbuildings: Out of Print Clothing. Books on...

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:34:13 -0500

kratlee:

paperbuildings:

Out of Print Clothing. Books on shirts. Shirts on a mission.

DO WANT! ALL OF THEM!

(found via quartercentury)

okay, so if being put on a t-shirt means you’re internet famous, i would like to congratulate salinger, rand, vonnegut, et al, for finally making it on the scene. you now join the ranks of selleckwaterfallsandwich.

bad jokes aside, officially in love with out of print.

Continuations: Defending (Internet) Freedom

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 15:03:07 -0500

Continuations: Defending (Internet) Freedom:

I love Italy - for vacations, that is. But the decision by a judge in Milan to convict several Google employees for the posting of a bullying video on Youtube is a serious threat to the potential of the Internet to be a force for freedom. I have been critical of Google many times on this blog,…

theimpossiblecool: Loren.

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 13:03:16 -0500

theimpossiblecool:

Loren.

kevinnuut: 30 Examples of Urban Decay. I didn’t expect this...

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 14:23:25 -0500

kevinnuut:

30 Examples of Urban Decay.

I didn’t expect this from Web Design Ledger, but they are doing a collage of urban decay photography in their latest post. Beautiful.

The Girl With Glass Feet by Ali Shaw

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 10:49:41 -0500

I heard about The Girl With Glass Feet in this NY Times review and immediately got a copy (thanks to the good people at Henry Holt!). And while the Times’ reviewer says it much better than I can, I agree—this is truly an unusual and lovely book.

The title is literal—Ida Maclaird’s feet have turned to glass—and she has returned to the misty islands of St. Hauda’s Land to seek a cure, before the crystallization consumes her. St. Hauda’s Land, where Ida contracted her condition, is, as the Times’ reviewer points out, the land of Once upon a time. Misty, forested, populated (maybe) by unusual, magical creatures that flit among the trees—this is a place we think we recognize, but, one gets the sense, could never find on a map.

Aiding Ida in her quest is Midas, a profoundly awkward local who nevertheless possesses some kind of charm—at least, he didn’t annoy me, so there must be some sort of charm (grace?) there. Ida and Midas seek Henry Fuwa, an elusive man who seems to know the island’s secrets, and also take on the help of Carl Maulsen, a Maclaird family friend, as well as several others. The main characters’ back stories connect them all in ways that, in a normal book, would be ridiculous, but here, in this otherworldly land, it feels fated, and right. The complexities of Midas’s relationship with his father seem a bit overwrought, at times, but this is a minor complaint.

For a story about a supernatural affliction, this is a remarkably simple novel—not all that much actually happens, and the cast of characters is small. And Shaw’s writing is restrained but luminous, moving the story along crisply but pausing for moments that visually dazzle or make your heart ache.

In fact, in certain ways this reminds me of Elizabeth Kostova’s The Swan Thieves. Both writers seem extraordinarily gifted when describing their fictional worlds and characters, and both books rely heavily on back story for their force. But where Kostova’s book felt a little bloated, Shaw’s feels economical, giving both the story and the rhetorical beauty of his writing more weight.

When I finished this book I wished it wasn’t over, but I loved how it ended. I couldn’t agree with the Times reviewer more: “The end of the book, saturated with color and emotion, is risky and brave like the message it imparts. Only a heart of glass would be unmoved.”

The Girl With Glass Feet by Ali Shaw
Henry Holt & Co.
287 pages

(via dirtyprettything)

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 16:03:16 -0500

(via dirtyprettything)

Yes! Take that, sinus infection. (via dirtyprettything)

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 11:47:46 -0500

Yes! Take that, sinus infection. (via dirtyprettything)

Stephen Colbert cuts a sandwich with an ice skate. Love him....

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 22:19:29 -0500

Stephen Colbert cuts a sandwich with an ice skate. Love him. (via fatmanatee)

I want to go to there. (via dirtyprettything)

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 22:48:59 -0500

I want to go to there. (via dirtyprettything)

(via david and theinternetaccordingtoadrian and poobah)

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 22:22:03 -0500

(via david and theinternetaccordingtoadrian and poobah)

"Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence."

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 15:54:51 -0500

“Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.”

- Henry David Thoreau (via theimpossiblecool)

Rainbow on a snowy day. Score 1 for the universe. inky: From...

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 14:53:00 -0500

Rainbow on a snowy day. Score 1 for the universe.

inky:

From reddit:

I nearly lost it when I realized I was wearing orange under my sweater. No one else cared.

kristenbyers: How to use a semicolon - The Oatmeal

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:33:18 -0500

kristenbyers:

How to use a semicolon - The Oatmeal

Clever ad: Volkswagen. For every kind of load. (via...

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 10:53:52 -0500

Clever ad: Volkswagen. For every kind of load. (via fuckyeahads)

Why does this work? Obviously it’s a great play on hauling loads. But what’s just as important are the green/white striped awning in the background, the cobbled street, the weeds in the cracks, the overflowing produce.

They make this scene vintage, wholesome, old-world—a place an old Italian gentleman might stroll by, where locals buy fresh local produce just as they have for generations. It’s a world we want to be in, and, therefore, a brand association we want to have.

debbiestier: soupsoup: nevver:WLT

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 22:43:38 -0500

debbiestier:

soupsoup:

nevver:WLT