Chapel Hill Music Spotlight: WXYC and Cat's Cradle

I received a nice gift today from WXYC, my hometown student radio station in Chapel Hill. So i feel obligated to bring a in a few more listeners and let the people in on a little secret. WXYC 89.3 FM is the "non-commercial student-run radio station of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. They broadcast at 400 watts from the student union on the UNC campus, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The coverage area encompasses approximately 370 square miles in central North Carolina." In November 1994, WXYC became the first radio station in the world to rebroadcast its signal over the Internet. And who says nothing ever happens in the South? The station has won numerous awards and has a freeform(at) which is chosen by the disc jockeys. There mission statement states the desire to "illustrate the relationships between seemingly disparate types of music. We believe that our free-format is the best way to accomplish this mission. Our disc jockeys harness the almighty power of the segue to draw musical linkages across time, culture, and pure sound." The station survives on donations and public funding, so if you would like to help visit here. The station also holds an annual 80's dance that is hosted down at another venue..

On Main Street in Carrboro ("Paris of the Piedmont") is the legendary Cat's Cradle. The music venue has been around for over 37 years(1969) supporting artists from local high school bands to world famous concert arena bands. Owner Frank Heath is probably the most respected and intelligent club owner in America (cool as the other side of the pillow). Nirvana, the Offspring, KRS-One, Wu-Tang, Sonic Youth,Cheap Trick, Archers Of Loaf, Indigo Girls, the Replacements, etc. Just to put it like this, Pearl Jam hangs out here when they come to town for shows 30 minutes away. The Cradle is one of the premier music destinations in the south, with acts asking to play. In the next month the lineup includes Clipse, Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, Sean Lennon, Ratatatat, RJ-D2 and more. The venue holds only a couple hundred folks which make the shows all that more lively while still intimate and only add to the lore. Tickets are usually cheap, running from $10 to $30 dollars. The venue is also actively involved in supporting the Carnivore Preservation Trust and Piedmont Wildlife Center. The crowds are always an appreciative crew, with native Chapel Hillians and Carrborians turning out in force!

I was so lucky to grow up in such a great spot that continues to remain dedicated to the growth and promotion of fantastic music. I urge everyone to support the music in their community today!

Cradle Schedule

[ed. note] Another great music spot not to be ignored is Schoolkids Records down on Franklin Street. Another post fellas!

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So Over Second Life

If i have to hear another presentation touting how great Second Life is, im going to lose it. It is an absolute fact that consumers are flocking to online communities like Facebook, Myspace, LastFM, and World of Warcraft. Yet 2L continues to garner huge amounts of press, for something i see as not all that evolutionary. Everyone from presidential candidates to the Swedish embassy is on Second Life. Yet marketers continue to think of it as the Holy Grail of "virtual worlds" and i think that is wrong.

Connectivity has proved to be THE boon for the expansion of gaming communities with many marketers seeing a growing potential. World of Warcraft now maintains more than 7.5 million people who pay for monthly subscriptions to the site. Xbox Live has almost six million gamers with 80% paying for additional downloadable content. Second Life does have more than 40,000 paid subscribers, but most users use free accounts. Linden Labs makes most of its money from companies that lease space on the site.

Yet marketers seem to think 2L will bring the success that games have brought, often ignoring why games have been so successful. This is due in part to the fact that games are social in nature. Online games allow chat communication, an ability to always be connected and evenly matched competition, highly desirable to a global audience who can simply log on to connect and play. This is exactly why the jury is still deliberating on Second Life. It isn’t exactly a game, there are no monsters to slay or movies to download (yet); Linden Labs only sells its users land with nothing on it. Second Life is more of an open-platform, with everything created by the users themselves.

The biggest activity in Second Life is shopping, and most users don't have the time or inclincation to create their own property. Marketers are creating spaces and things but they aren't properly adjusted to virtual needs. A virtual house branded Adidas or Reebok isn't trying that hard.. A virtual Coldwell Banker will get me a virtual house, but how is that going to translate in real-world sales? I don't think marketers have figured out 2L, and won't until they can better tie virtual behaviors and needs into their real-life counterparts.

This isnt to say 2L is worthless or not a possibly rich innovation space, but I think right now gaming is a much better space to play . Websites like Student of Fortune and Stickam are really interesting social sites that demonstrate consumers clustering around specific social needs or more humanistic interactions, not simulating a virtual world. Real needs being benefited will always be stronger than replicating them. 2L im still waiting for you to show me something....

NextGen?

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Holding It Down: NYC

Gotta love NYC. World's best place for people-watching. Had a great weekend of hanging out in the city and was able to take quite a few fantastic photos of people meandering around the city. This one struck us more than any other. It appeared to be part of a photo-shoot down on spring street with 20 kids chatting, while other kids skated and two camera guys running around amongst them. Not sure what urban brand this was, but am anxiously looking forward to see a catalog drop with this scene. The social dynamics of the group were absolutely incredible, and it not for the cameras you would have thought this was block party. This guy stood out like a sore thumb, decked to the hilt with this color-coordinated Adidas-laden outfit. Very Americanized-Yakuza urban NYC streetnik. His commanding presence was even further cemented with the toy AK-47 he had propped on the wall. Other members of the shoot seemed intimidated around him. Maybe he was the boss? I was really dying to know who were these people and what exactly was going on?

This picture typifies new york city to me on so many levels with the crazy color coordinated outfits to the barrage of pop-culture graffiti (see mike tyson)on the walls to the phone texting communications, best enjoyed with a beverage of choice. This area is a magnet for graffiti and artistic types, as the wall looks like a graf-warzone. Also the proliferation of things such as toy guns in our society is a pretty scary notion, even more so in an urban environment where i haven't seen that many guns or weapons. NC has quite a bit more and let me tell you i feel much safer there too. It assumes that we have become numb to the everyday inclusion of violence in our headlines as well as amongst us. Was truly a sight to behold and love this image for so many cultural reasons. This is what we call holding it down! Stay tuned for more shots from our jaunt this weekend.

goback

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Reef Dram Sandals: Innovation Flip or Flop?

Reef is one of the more visible surfing lifestyle brands, despite mainly making footwear and only in the last few years expanding its clothing line for males. Many of my shredding friends swear Reefs as the most comfortable sandal. We all know that Rainbows are actually the most comforting sandal we can put on our feet. The Reef DRAM sandal has a "POLYURETHANE ENCAPSULATED CANTEEN IN HEEL WITH SCREW CAP" aka......heel flask. So i can store liquid in my feet?? This isn't Reef's first foray into mixing sandals with drinking. Is this a true innovation 1up on the beer hat? Clearly Reef knows its target isnt just guys who surf and party, but all drinking guys who might need a nightcap handy. Slightly gimmicky, but you have to applaud Reef for colliding unlikely worlds of drinking and footwear here. This is quite a creative example of enlarging the target on a niche brand. It may not break Reef out as a lifestyle brand yet or be a true game-changing innovation, bu it is another fine addition to a growing footwear party line.

HeelsUp

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ExpoTV: Shop Better

Was watching TV the other night and i saw an ad from Time Warner about the Expo Channel which allows users to contribute product review on virtually anything. TM has done some relatively innovative things in terms of channels from the DIY story we wrote last year to their good advertising. Now comes along ExpoTV, (which is apparently on every major cable network as well as Youtube and the rest of the netizens), which is another great manifestation of all the consumer-generated groups out there.

"Expo TV is a new social shopping destination with thousands of consumer-generated reviews and product demonstrations all available in full-motion video." The site features reviews that are labeled as "short and un-biased" review products that members love or hate. Also useful is the addition to the reviews contributed by our community, the site also provides consumers with informative ‘how to buy’ videos and product demonstration videos contributed by "advertising partners". Ahhh knew there was a catch. The site's aim is really to make consumers better shoppers and it just may work. The site pays you $5 for each review it selects (you can submit up to 50 at a time) and you get paid-per-click as well.

From viewing a few reviews i can say that they are quite helpful when purchasing products that you have no expertise and would like a little visual review. I myself paid more attention to someone pointing out the features, than i did to a review on Amazon, so they might be onto something here. All categories are searchable, so this creates quite a listable archive of reviews. This is Consumer Reports 2.0, run by the masses. Why go to Best Buy to get a slanted take on a camera for some bloke's commission? Current is the most similar brand i can think that lives here, and it has done quite well with establishing opinion pieces on the screen. What really makes this work is the synergy of consumers, experts, and advertisers.

Look for more things of this nature in the future, only with more niche topics and even "lessons" from experts (available for purchase no doubt)

Expo

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Skateable Ads

Quiksilver knows its target and it knows how to brand. These ads, created by Saatchi & Saatchi Copehhagen are brilliantly executed. The medium is everything. Nothing like an ad that lets you grind it all while improving your technique. This is like giving smack to an addict....

Skate or Die

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End of Garbage?

Sometimes it seems people are just reading our minds. Maybe we should go into publishing. Fortune has article called the End of Garbage which discusses the idea of ZERO WASTE. Lifefilter discussed this several days ago in our original Organic Sustainability article.

Fortune looks at cities from Boulder, Co to Carrboro, NC (hey armadillo! good looking hometown neighbor) to brands such as Toyota, Nike, Xerox, HP, Stonyfield Farms, and Unilever who all believe in zero waste. Fortune goes into some stellar thoughts with William McDonough discussing " Wanting the industry to mimic biology, where one specie's excrement is another's food." Ok maybe not exactly like that, but its about elminating the entire concept of waste.

San Francisco has a revolutionary company called Norcal Waste, which as Lifefilter proposed, is already coding wate in the "Fantastic Three", blue for recycling, green for food, and black for stuff thats destined for the landfill. Wastepaper, is the USA's No.1 export by volume to China, which becoems packaging for goods in China. Seems someone is putting our waste to use...

The article goes on to explore the benefits of food scraps, which become an extremely rich mulch, which can be purchased by anyone. Winemakers believe the mulch gives their grapes a deeper flavor and are buying the stuff by the truckload. When consumers drink the wine, they are completing the recycling circle.

Merchants get discounts and the city gets incentives for dealing with a smaller black bin sending less to the landfill. Incentivizing people financially makes it more expensive to do the wrong thing. Americans generate about 4.5lbs of garbage a day(EPA), and 1.5 is recycled. That leaves quite a bit of opportunity to still be utilized.

I would love to see more action here in NYC similar to what SF is doing. Accountability is difficult to establish amongst consumers without incentives, with Norcal seems to have businesses buying in as well. Excellent opportunity here for the "branded utilities" or even peer networks to establish a waste economy that fuels the green economy. Great article, haven't found a link online yet, but pick up Fortune and check it out.

Garbage

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History of Brand(ing)s

So often history seems to repeat itself. Once a history major myself, i am amazed at how far we progress as a society, yet we often repeat the mistakes of the past. The same holds true for advertising. Look at what CPB did for Burger King. They squarely questioned why he lived in the brand name and not the brand for 20 years. Go back to your roots man. I digress...., but along comes a site dedicated to educating folk on the world's most powerful brands. While its title is a bit misleading (its not so much a history on branding, as it is a time capsule on the brand's histories), it is still a a relevant and comprehensive peek at some of the world's biggest and relevant corporations. I love the graphical interface, nothing like a little logo comparison! [found via Faris]

Branded

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Planner Tools: CueFlash

Planners always seem to be looking for tools to increase productivity or simplify a process for those off the wall creative types. Along comes Cue Flash via [boingboing]. Most appropriate for anyone in public speaking or academia who want to use this if your hand is too lazy to write....

There in a...

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The Next Chocolate Innovation: Sourcing

Coffee has undergone quite a bit of innovation in the last decade from free trade to sourcing. Now it looks like its delectably indulgent neighbor,chocolate, is poised to undergo some evolutions of its own.

It seems that we should now think of chocolate like a fine wine. Maricel E. Presilla, in her book "The New Taste of Chocolate," speaks about chocolate as one broad category — "exclusive-derivation" chocolate. Some chocolatiers use simpler phrases like single origin, single bean or varietal. "Others have gotten more extreme, naming bars after one of the three main varieties of cacao, like the rare criollo, and labeling chocolate made from beans grown on one farm "plantation" or "estate" chocolate." They even refer to harvests that are particularly tasty as "grand cru," a term lifted from winemakers. Currently chocolate is classified based on taste such as semi-sweet, dark, etc or by type white chocolate, mint etc. Michel Cluizel has a shop here in new york where one can sample the sharp biting and acidic finish of chocolate from the African island of São Tomé! The Times even discussed how growing cacao trees in the soil of a former mango grove might result in chocolate with a faint flash of the fruit.

So now companies are producing bars that are designated both organic and single-origin chocolate. Much of this is marketingspeak, as "many factors affect a piece of chocolate: not only where the beans were grown, but the skill of whoever dried, fermented and roasted them, the amount of cocoa butter that was mixed back into the crushed beans, the two- or three-day process of mixing, heating and cooling (called conching and tempering), and the touch of the chocolatier."

So it seems that sourcing has come to the wonderful world of chocolate and soon that nestle bar may seem like the mcdonalds of chocolate to the masses. While much of it is just marketing, eating chocolate now by country makes it a little easier to figure out the environmental and labor practices behind each bar. Traveling and politics through a chocolate bar is a wonderful. Also as environmental concerns become more prevalent, is this is a sign of a re-emerging power to the farmer who grows the crops that feed us?

Vice via NY Times

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Organic Recycling: Sustainability?

I was reading transworld Surf the other day and an article mentioned the fantastic surf in Columbia(i know its not Surfer, but i read all of them ok?). The article mentioned recycling in Columbia was labeled 1. Organic 2. Inorganic 3. Recyclable.

Got me thinking...

We only have 1. Waste 2. Recyclable. Hmmmmmmm. First Blush, my thought is we aren't really making the most of our waste. Immediately i thought why we might not do this. We are a developed country and naturally have more packaged/processed goods, accounting for a greater ratio of waste. Also urban environments don't really have the space or capacity to allow for degradation of organic materials.

Then i kept thinking...

Isn't it just wrong we are wasting organic materials by classifying them as trash? Possibly they help in landfills but i dont think anything can help a landfill much at all. The potential for organic waste could be huge as far as producing fertilizer or helping crop cultivation. Doing a quick scan, "Organic waste is biodegradable and can be processed in the presence of oxygen by composting or in the absence of oxygen using anaerobic digestion. Both methods produce a soil conditioner, which when prepared correctly can also be used as a valuable source of nutrients in urban agriculture. Anaerobic digestion also produces methane gas an important source of bio-energy." source Um so we could power our transportation and cut down on pollution just by making better use of our waste? (sounds very back to the future to some folks)

So couldn't we save the earth with our own waste? Ok im sure its not that simple.. I certainly have a different view than most urbanites that live in Manhattan. Born in the green mountains, and spending my whole life in chapel hill north carolina(ok and a hot minute in SF),but i am more at home amongst the trees. New York is infinitely fun, diverse and culture immersing, but incredibly full of litter, and wasteful behaviors such as repeated sidewalk washings, running fire hydrants, and electricity running 24/7. This city has many powerful people that certainly care about environmental change, so what better place to instigate change. It seems what we classify as reusable isnt totally right, and we should look at what we can re-utilize rather than deeming it waste. Why don't we look at our output not just as a problem, but as a sustainable solution? Surely it can't be that simple...

Any environmental folks out there know the truth?(Laine) Let me know..

Recycling Organic

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Massive Change: Bruce Mau

The other night I had the privilege of listening/hosting Bruce Mau, social thinker, designer extraordinaire and author of Massive Change. I have heard Bruce speak before, but the intimateness of the locale made it quite a personable and informative evening. Mau has a fantastically optimistic approach and thinks on a huge scale for those of you that dont know. For many the ultimate in design might be a plane or car, but Mau looks further to the infrastructures and behaviors these products live in. As he says "It's not about the world of design. It's about the design of the world."

Purpose
-He sees design as the ability to solve real problems fueled by'creatively, compassionately applied-intelligence' to the real problems faced by billions of people. Thank you for not being another creative director so focused on winning awards.

The American Consumer Culture
-Americans currently behave and consume much more so than anyone else on earth. In fact Americans on average consume so much, it will take 4 earths to satisfy their wants. But this isn't as dreadful as it sounds, as Bruce says eventually we will have to curb our behavior and change since there is one earth. I just wonder what the tipping point will be be and what will trigger it?

American Cars
-American cars aren't given the credit they deserve. They have have averaged an efficiency increase of about 1.6% over the last 20 years. Which is a fairly high number when it comes to sustainability. Makes me wonder how are these brands really communicating their products? I can't think of American car in the last 20 years i consider innovative.

The Traffic Problem
-The problem with cars and pollution is not the cars or the exhaust emissions. People all over the world are currently working on this. The problem is the people, their traffic patterns, and the required infrastructure. Break that, and you can solve the real problem. Still scary to almost ignore it, but Bruce is looking at the deeper and more meaningful context here.

Design is about the Future
-Design is not just about unleashing functionality or self-prescribed benefits. Good design can change human behavior or thought processes, and that makes design truly about the future.

Poverty

-Possibly the most eye-popping point of the night. Currently the areas that receive the greatest amount of solar energy are also the world's poorest. Meaning someday they have the potential with solar power to be the richest.. Incredible.






Life Forms

-Humans are more involved in design than one would first think. Just look at animals. Yes animals. We have been designing our dogs for centuries and now Israelis have designer chickens, modified with no feathers for the hot arid desert. Not to mention designer babies, with modified genes and whatnot. We have some serious ethical questions ahead of us.





One quote to sum it all up "Now that we can do anything, what will we do?" -BM

All in all a fantastic evening. More to come, stay tuned to Lifefilter.

Scale
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3D Film to make Comeback?

The music video for Gwen Stefani's recent single, "Wind It Up," finds her chained to a fence while a flurry of bubbles and snowflakes float by. Viewed from a certain perspective - that is, through 3-D glasses - it is a dreamlike moment in which the flurry seems close enough to touch.

The video begins with Ms. Stefani yodeling(so sexy), a homage to "The Sound of Music," one of the her favorite films. But the idea of adding the
bubbles and snow came from an unlikely source: (Jesus-tomb-finder) James Cameron, the director behind effects-laden hits like "The Terminator" and
"Titanic," who visited Ms. Stefani's set last October and shot a
separate version of the video with 3-D equipment.

Now the two are working together to produce music films, concerts and other content in 3-D to show in specially equipped theaters. I have a friend in the nano-tech business who swears this is far far away, but could Mr. Cameron have stumbled upon some alien tech that allows for this? But the latest version of the technology has Hollywood buzzing again, particularly since 3-D showings of animated fare like "Chicken Little" have racked up impressive sales.

"This represents a distinctive take on what both the music-video and the concert can be. If it works, the partners said, fans could experience a concert as if they were on stage next to U2's guitarist, the Edge, or see the members of Kiss in full makeup perform a pyrotechnic show seemingly right in front of them, all for a fraction of the price of seeing a headline act on tour."

3D[via nytimes]

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Bad Lifefilter

Apologies to our readers but we needed to pull a story from earlier, as it was pending approval, which was unfortunately denied. Should it get approved in the future, it will go right back up..

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Why We Like Apple: UI

Its been a design crazy week, but here is some more food for thought. This great quote found by the folks at influx demonstrates an important & growing facet of design.

"As we're spending more and more time with digital products, User Interface is becoming one of the most important areas of design, but it's also one of the trickiest to judge. When user interface design is good, it's hassle-free and we don't have to think about it; but when it's bad, it can make our lives hell." -Alice Rawsthorn-IHT

Looking specifically at Apple, why do we love their products? What sets them apart? The iPhone isn't going to be the best phone on the market by any means. Its not even 3G. What is it beyond the oooooh and ahh factor, that contributes to its success as a brand and in culture? It's not the sleek design, but really the interface. The ipod may look good, but really the way it allowed us to store music, access it, and download it made it so simple and easy. This is what powered the digital music changeover. The iPod revolution wasn't about the design and shape of the player, as it was how it changed our behaviors. Look at how many mp3 players are out there and subsequently released since the iPod; more memory, smaller design, pocket-friendly. Yet none can knock the king off its perch, because it almost always comes down to how you access your data. Apple computers certainly look gorgeous, but thats never sole reason for purchase. People love the UI and how simple it is..

Just look at this Chinese iPhone knock-off. It looks nearly identical, but does anything think it can outsell the iPhone?


So it seems we may say we love how it looks, but really we love we use the bugger. Proactively designing to their future habits is truly the future of design. And Apple does a damn good job playing to our future.

iPhone Home
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