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It’s predicted that in three years we will be watching so much TV and videos on the internet that bandwidth will run out. Most of the networks have their shows on their websites for viewing and now there are new sites like Hulu that have plenty of diverse TV shows and movies. You can also get shows on pay-per-view sites like iTunes and Amazon.

What amazes me is that with the popularity of large HD flat screen TVs, why are we spending so much time on the internet watching videos in such low quality? I’ve decided that it’s because our attention span is so short we need a constant supply of entertainment on our TVs, our computers and our iPhones. Why do I believe this? Because of my case study below…

200018793-001 John Giustina/Getty Images

Case study - Dramatic Prairie Dog

One year ago a clip from a Japanese TV show with a segment about prairie dogs as pets showed up on YouTube. Someone took ten seconds of a close-up of the prairie dog and matched it up with dramatic music. Then it became a YouTube sensation. There were over 2,000 spin-offs and mash-ups of the dramatic prairie dog.

South Park summed it up best in their Canada on Strike episode when they thought the best way to raise money for Canada was to become a YouTube phenomenon. When they became a hit, they earned 10 million theorical dollars on YouTube. They went to the Department of Internet money to get paid. While waiting to get paid, they met up with all of the YouTube favorites, including the prairie dog waiting to cash in…

Wendy McClure, parodist and scribe of weight loss culture (”I’m Not the New Me“), posted the vintage Weight Watchers diet cards and commentary from the aforementioned book on a dedicated site of their own to permanently shine, candyboots. Keep clicking through, some of these are too funny.

thanks Christian!

Not that this is the most egregious possible example, and subway ads are certainly nothing new, but whoever the revenue entrepreneur at L.A.’s Union Station is has been on quite a roll of late. Most recently unveiled is the “Bodog” mixed fighting championship campaign which basically took over the entire entry and platform to the Red Line, i.e. the main subway node (which, granted, isn’t saying much in L.A.). A huge vinyl covers the floor in the entry, as well as several billboard-sized wall mountings further in the entry, capped off with a vinyl wrap around every one of the supporting column/pillars down in the platform area.

As you can probably imagine, the top (I’m assuming) Bodog mixed fighting championship contenders aren’t the prettiest faces around to say the least, and the ad is a huge up-close face-on portrait of each contender. I wasn’t looking forward to having to endure these gruesome heads on a bi-daily basis (in multiple no less), but it hasn’t bothered me as much as I thought it would. In fact there’s almost something primal and cathartic about descending into the cavernous underground space in the heart of L.A. and being confronted by the bigger-than-life, jabba-the-hut-caliber ugliness of these visages, only to then walk right over them, your foot fitting surprisingly well in a roundhouse-contorted nostril as you pass.

This is on the heels of a whopper of a Dos Equis ad that was put up way back at World Cup time (and still there), which covers basically the entire tunnel leading from one end of Union Station to the other. This was kind of shocking at first, Union Station being a tourist-level architectural attraction in L.A. and all. In retrospect, it seems surprising that prior to this, the considerable interior square-footage of the central hub of commuter travel in L.A. was basically blank, which I guess speaks more to advertisers’ estimations of the reach and frequency rates of would-be adspace there…

As a vaguely-related postscript, here’s a view from the 16th floor at my office, in which if you look closely, you can spot off in the smoggy distance a HUMONGOUS ad for what appears to be in my best estimation the newest Will Ferrell vehicle. I believe this month’s installment has him as an ice skater.

Hilarious article by Jessica Helfand at Design Observer about Ken’s birthday which was yesterday. Apparently the chameleonic Ken has done turns as a photographer, a photography student, and yes, even an art director (seen below).

Are you feeling a little bit let down by 2007, after being named Time magazine’s Person of the Year of 2006? Maybe you need a little bit of Learning to Love You More, a web site / art exhibition consisting of responses from creatives worldwide to mission-like assignments which encourage enhancing your own experience. (It’s a bit like Charlie’s Angels, but with more thinking, less jiggling.) The assignments are whimsical, introspective, and stimulate creativity and positivity by challenging participants to cherish memories and embrace the everyday. Personally I have bookmarked it and check in every once in a while as a nice reminder people are constantly creating. Some of my favorites:

Assignment #1
Make a child’s outfit in an adult’s size.
Moli
Madrid, SPAIN

Assignment #43
Make an exhibition of the art in your parent’s house
Nina Yuen
Ninole, Hawaii USA

When I was a kid, I liked this, the head was a bowl and the dress was a cup, and my mom let me eat and drink from it when I was sick.

Assignment #55
Photograph a significant outfit
“What I was wearing when I met her.”
Kevin Taylor
Houston, Texas USA

The “Charlies” of LTLYM are artists Harrell Fletcher and Miranda July, and if you like the site, you’ll love Me and You and Everyone We Know, Miranda July’s feature film.
Learning to Love You More

Harrell Fletcher

Miranda July

Macaroni

You realize watching this just how staged all of the wedding imagery you typically see really is, even when it is ‘behind-the-scenes’. Kind of funny, kind of scary. This inspired my newest business-idea-that-I’ll-never-get-around-to-but-should-be-done: Stylist 911.  fyi - you can skip about the first 1/4 of the video.

While peeking at photographer’s web sites, these two pictures got a giggle outta me.

Asha Schechter

Heather Oppelt

It’s rare that my “Texas ex-es” email me something in the least bit worthwhile, but this is a classic of amateur photography, sure to be in the next time capsule that we launch into deep space as an introduction to humanity. In another life whoever did this would be making millions in advertising instead of duct-taping their own kid to the wall for kicks…

Well as long as we’re laughing at models, here’s a good one.  Actually make that two.

That’s always fun.