April 2008 Archives

S is for..., originally uploaded by fengschwing.

An iconic Superman montage. The original uploader explains why he loves Superman; my own thoughts turned toward the degree to which each of these S symbols is arguably distinct.

Baskin-Robbins parries the Ben & Jerry's Free Cone Day with 31 Cent Scoop Night--and makes the connection to charity the centerpiece of shilling, even if the opportunity to donate is admittedly chancey.

I don't know if this will work in my neighborhood--the Baskin-Robbins is just a few doors down from the NYPD.

Bonus fact: Chocolate triglycerides can lock into six forms, not all of which is conducive to commercially viable chocolate. Which basically goes to show that I will read just about anything to get out of finishing my exam.

This weeks DC Universe #0 is another example of a strategy at which comics-related media excel: getting folks to pay for ads. The book is basically a set of teasers* for six related series, yet with a number and a price, albeit a minimal one, the book takes on a value distinct from what it might have had were it merely given away. At a time when folks will drop $10 just to see a 90 second movie preview, we shouldn't be surprised that it works.

*It's not much of a spoiler, I think, to note that the last page makes a rather clever pointed reference to this fact.

Is it my imagination, or has Twitter become the Facebook-for-fogeys?

This very issue came up in my undergrad startup class last week, when we talked about Facebook & Twitter business models. Most of the students used Facebook, none used Twitter. Sometimes I wonder if the reason Twitter has taken off in certain circles has less to do with the tool itself than the sense that it's finally something on the internet older folks glommed onto first.

Miley Cyrus and offshore teen sex ads, originally uploaded by trexfiles23.

Jezebel raises an important issue pertaining to the Miley Cyrus controversy: conflicting sexual norms across the world. In the U.S., a sexualized image of a 15 or 17 year old can give rise to cries of child porn; in China, where the age of consent is 14, a Disney billboard with a sexed-up twelve year old passes without notice until seen by Western eyes.

The photo above illustrates how PR in another country can stand in striking contrast to PR at home. It's a European ad for HP Laserjets that incorporates the overt sexual objectification of young girls common in manga, particularly in the genre known as lolicon.

And here's another example from this series, which made the rounds in design blogs back when they hit Ads of the World.

In the U.S., corporate scandals have led HP to try to boost its tarnished corporate image by celebrating its commitment to civic virtue. The negative attention from an ad like this could be counterproductive, to say the least.

In Europe the reaction so far seems to be mixed, although one blog, Daily Yoghurt, has asked readers to post their own colorized versions.

The controversy resulting from the Disney billboard provides a warning as to the latent potential for negative PR resulting from ads that traditionally went unseen outside their offshore markets.  After all, there's ratings and site visits in bringing hidden deviance to light.  It's just one more reason why corporations are exerting more centralized control over local PR.

UPDATE: The Laserjet ads have now been removed from Ads of the World.  A shame, really, because along with 'em went the info regarding the agency that designed them.  According to this Google cache of a blog post mirroring the original AotW pages, here are the details regarding the apparent subcontractor whom, I suspect, HP won't be using any time soon:

Advertising Agency: Publicis, Bucharest, Romania
Creative Director: Razvan Capanescu
Art Director / Copywriter: Catalin Rulea
Published: April 2007

43(B)log points to a useful article on museum image rights & licensing.

A fascinating legal skirmish erupts as Marvel tries to shut down an unauthorized early screening of Iron Man. Marvel is, as one might expect, policing the use of its marks & copyrighted material by a commercial enterprise--in this case, TechCrunch, which was using the show as a way to build goodwill with its readers.

One major concern is no doubt security. If you've ever been to an early screening, you know the drill: hand over you cel phone; submit to a cavity search; waterboard interrogation, etc. The TechCrunch screening would probably have little-to-none of that, creating a serious possibility of pirated copies, cel phone excerpts or spoiler-filled reviews hitting the web before opening day.

Whoever decided to authorize an early screening without looping in Marvel, the company that made the movie, was not thinking. The 2005 distribution agreement between Marvel and Paramount provides, in article 10, that "Marvel shall be meaningfully consulted on the release pattern and distribution pattern" of the film; Article 7 also requires Marvel to be consulted for all commercial co-promotions and tie-ins. That the screening was apparently arranged through Paramount's group sales department will probably have behind-the-scenes ramifications; this incident does give the impression that Paramount is something of a loose cannon, with few if any internal controls at the local level.

The theater's current stance--defying Marvel--also creates some interesting possibilities going forward. Your desire to see Iron Man first aside, would you trust your properties to companies that consider themselves free to disregard a studio's express directives?

UPDATE: The screening is back on. The lack of coordination with Marvel was clearly an issue, as was the cross-promotion with TechCrunch, which beyond the mere fact of its existence gave rise to a conflict with a Paramount subcontractor. Read all the comments and you'll see that behind the apology and concise final explanation things had indeed gotten rather intense, with a wide range of legal issues being raised--as Arrington (of TC) notes, if his lawyers hadn't gotten involved the screening would have been canceled. The resolution allays what was turning into a PR nightmare, but we can expect for the future that all such events like this will be pre-cleared and cross-checked.

For organizations faced with similar issues, Marvel's crisis management strategy illustrates four valuable tactics in dealing with a PR meltdown resulting from a legal dust-up:

Acceptance: Sometimes in trying to prevent a suboptimal result you can create an equally, if not worse suboptimal situation. You can treat the unexpected consequence as irrelevant, or you can accept it as a fact and patch around it. That's what Marvel PR did: it let the screening go on, allaying actual PR damage at serious risk of getting worse.

Deflection: Note the explanation laying the ultimate blame on a local subcontractor's organizational issues. The actual situation was the Marvel team asserting substantive legal claims, yet the public explanation focuses attention on a smaller entity with practical concerns. Then, as we shall see, Marvel PR distinguishes the company from its own legal department. The effect of all of this: to restore Marvel's goodwill by sacrificing entities with whom the fans have no attachment. Clever, no?

Apology: Never underestimate the power of an apology, even if you & others in the team think you were justified. As you can see in the TC comments, Marvel's apology already has some folks seeing Marvel as the good guy & the critics as over-reacting--a response that further illustrates the value of co-ordinating legal action with your PR team.

Self-mockery: As anyone who grew up with Mad Magazine knows, a good way to diffuse criticism is to the liberal use of self-deprecating humor. If you can make an in-joke that makes folks feel like they're connected to you, all the better. From the TechCrunch comments section, here's a model of the form from Marvel's digital PR VP:

Thank you for bringing this situation to our attention. We at Marvel have discovered that the David Althoff who sent the CAD is not the REAL David Althoff, but a SKRULL who has been sent to disrupt the opening of IRON MAN.

You can read all about the SKRULL SECRET INVASION happening now at: http://www.marvel.com/comics/Secret_Invasion

Please go ahead with your screening. Enjoy the film.

Tony Stark is real pissed and will be dealing with this Skrull personally.

Best,

Ira

Ira Rubenstein - Executive Vice President, Global Digital Media Group- Marvel Entertainment, Inc. http://www.marvel.com

It's long, and I'm in oh-my-god-i'm-gonna-die-it's-end-of-the-semester-and-i'm-screwed mode, so go read it yourselves ya lazy bums. Here's a key quote:

Shah is aware, however, that he can’t poison the well by being too aggressive about turning Kiva into a money-making enterprise. It is only getting its money for loans because it is not a for-profit entity.

In 1994, getting university press books was sheer hell. Grad students bogarted all the best ones at the Yale Library, and the bookstore--well, if they didn't have it in stock (and back then, chances were they didn't--the old Yale bookstore branded itself as the region's best place to buy cheap mass market remainders), you could place at special order to arrive six-to-eight weeks later.

Amazon changed the game. Now we could get academic books whenever we wanted, and the old Yale bookstore died.

One was commerce to serve a charity. The other, a commercial start-up. But for my money, the real social enterprise was Amazon.

Via TechCrunch, Jeff Bezos' Usenet job solicitation from 1994:

I usually skip Ben & Jerry's Free Cone Day, but after hearing for the umpteenth that charities use it as a community fundraiser I decided to give it a slog.

I took my place at the end of the long line extending down the city sidewalk. Some were college students, a few were older, and since it was just after a school there were a lot of kids, tykes with moms and others on their own ranging from fourth grade on up.

Then it happened: the charitable donation ask, and I couldn't stop laughing. The deal was that Ben & Jerry's had dedicated all the tips for the day to breast cancer charity, so an employee was walking up and down the line calling on people to give.

Except she wasn't just asking people to donate. Instead she shouted, over and over again:

"Tips for tits, people. Tips for tits!"

I don't feel sorry for Peter Parker. Not in the least. I mean, here's a guy who has invented one of the holy grails of modern technology--superstrong silk--and instead of getting rich off the patent he keeps it to himself. Yes, he fights crime, but imagine if police departments all over the world had access to his invention. Not to mention construction companies, doctors, mountain rangers, rescue squads--the collective good accomplished by his invention would have been far greater if Peter Parker had licensed his invention for mass production.

But noooo--the only way he helps his Aunt make the rent is to use the webbing to glue a camera to the ceiling so he can take crappy pictures.

These scientists, however, probably won't be so dumb.

No Caption Needed points to the real story behind the Miley Cyrus controversy: the way we use the promotion of ethics to justify using imagery that is otherwise taboo:

We are never told the name of the model and there is no way to know her age. Nor does it matter. For whether she is fourteen or twenty-one, the point is that she is portrayed as a young Lolita, her supple body barely covered by a dress that seems to be in tatters. The expression on her face simultaneously performs a cultivated innocence and a primitive sexuality, the two reinforced by her bare feet and skinny, pale legs spread seductively around the back of a folding chair. Her long hair is both combed and yet unkempt, simultaneously complementing and accenting the tensions between nature and culture that pervade her pose and animate the adolescent sexual energy of the image.

This photograph is one of six images that appeared as part of a story titled “Green With Envy.” The story focuses on eco-conscious fashion being marketed to a “well-heeled audience” by Earth Pledge and Barneys New York. It thus operates within the soft porn aesthetic of high fashion photography. The woman above is wearing a Maison Martin Margiela dress made from “silk head scarves that were bleached, cut into strips and asymmetrically woven by hand.” The price is available on request, though the eco-conscious fashion wear on display in the other five images ranges in price from $910 for a smock dress made of “undyed cotton” to $10,000 for a ruffled dress made from “biopolymer—a corn-based alternative to polyester.” What we have, then, is the greenwashing of a soft porn aesthetic, where one progressive cause (save the environment) seems to trump another (protect our youth from sexual exploitation).

Apparently there is no end to what sex can sell, including a sustainable earth. Surely this is no way to save the planet.

Superdickery is a term made famous by a blog featuring pictures of Superman being cruel to his friends, something he apparently did with abandon back in the day.

It also aptly describes a new series on HBO: Hung, the story of a guy endowed with abilities beyond those of mortal men.

No, really:

"Think of him like Spider-Man," Burson said. "He's an average guy who gets in touch with his innate super powers."

The co-creators see the pick-up as a sign that "HBO has been invigorated as a place to go for creative talent."

Today in Malibu, via NSFW AVN:

Shane's World contract girl Casey Parker has banded together with Vivid Girl Sunny Leone, Brooke Haven and Veronica Rayne to raise money for abandoned babies [today] at a charity event to benefit Project Cuddle.

"It’s basically giving a chance for unwanted babies to get another home – our goal is to raise $5,000 but we want to go all the way and raise more," Parker told AVN. "We’re putting on the whole event – there will be live bands and an auction that I am going to host including a date with Brooke Haven and surfing lessons with me."

The fundraiser will take place from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. April 29 at 31800 Mulholland Highway, Mailbu, Calif. 90265.

"Anybody that makes any donation over $400, whether it's products for the auction or a check, one of us will personally go to the office and pick it up," said Casey. "You will get a porn star in your office!"

Given that the only way I can catch my meal is on a menu, I'd say this rare image provides telling evidence of human devolution.

Or primates' ingrained proclivity for mimesis. Your pick.

I found my grandfather's profile on Facebook. He's a prof, but still.
I dread the day I have to say Pop-pop Superpoked me. A world of wrong.

Charitable bracelets have been en vogue for a while, so much so that I think my academic center is the only charity left that hasn't used one to raise money. The picture above shows one imprinted with a slogan any longtime comics fan will recognize: "Excelsior", Stan Lee's trademark (literally) exclamation from his glory days at Marvel Comics. In fact, one of the many fun moments at Stan Lee's NY Comic Con panel: a fan asking him to say it.

The beneficiary: The Hero Initiative, one of several national comics charities at the New York Comic Con.

The 100 foot drag queen Wal*Mart Manager., originally uploaded by Greg-O-Ree.

Walmart has a reputation for being somewhat, ah, loose with respect to its internal regard for sexual discrimination. Here's an interesting twist: a wager that resulted in this local store manager having to dress like a woman.

But the money from the bet went to charity, so of course that means it was OK.

Excellent conference--the folks at Adelphi put together an engaging & informative shindig. They also provided a lot of time for everyone to chat outside the panels, which was great. More later when I wrap up my draft.

I'm going to present a paper today at this engaging conference, so posting will be light today. In case I don't get back here for a while, here's today's Pearls before Swine, which pretty much captures life here at Chez Uncivil:

The backlash against microcredit grows.

A commenter on this France 24 story calls the Grameen Bank mafia.

But the situation is far from rosy in Kalihati, one of the first Bangladeshi villages to benefit from Grameen’s low interest credit scheme. The villagers here who have taken a loan are unable to reimburse their credit, and claim to be harassed by Grameen Bank representatives. Korshed Alom, a former debt collector, was put into early retirement for having questioned the Grameen Bank’s methods: “Their technique is to scare borrowers and insult them. We tell them to sell their clothes, that they have no other choice. I’m not proud of myself, but several times, I had even been obliged to say ‘sell your children.’”

The Bank’s representatives choose not to respond to these accusations. It is impossible to obtain an interview with Mohammed Yunus, and the Grameen Bank headquarters are off-limits for journalists who are too curious.

In the accompanying video, an angry villager tells a Grameen representative, "You're not helping us. You're killing us."

Eco Team: Wildlife Force Bill Barker & Buster, originally uploaded by ThePowerSword.

My final fate: to be blown away for drinking coffee out of a styrofoam cup.

Curse you Eco Team!

Via Found, old currency contributed at an Ontario fundraising event:

Just sent out a draft of the last in my Blog@ Superman series. I'll be writing a bit more on the Siegel case as well as other things related to comics & design--in fact, I'd write about the Gordon Lee case now if it weren't 4:20 in the a.m.--but that series had reached a good place to wrap up.

Below: the music that was playing as I hit send, as well as what's been playing a bit as I write. And if you don't get the pun in the title, it's both a reference to the imminent end of the Siegel series and this scene from, well, you know.

It's nonprofit, and it helps people, shall we say, overcome their physical challenges. Pornfortheblind.org has a list of free audio clips and guidelines for you to record your own narration.

For an equally fascinating glimpse into the often ignored world of sex and disability, Susannah Breslin offers this account of a visit to a prostitute by a man with cerebral palsy. The following paragraph distills how a mainstream immoral act can equally serve as a means to transcend an otherwise deterministic physical condition:

I have a physical disability known as Cerebral Palsy and am in an electric wheelchair. I have always struggled in my own existence, largely because I rely on a lot of people to assist me with the most basic tasks, such as dressing, showering, getting in and out of bed, and other basic things that many people take for granted.

My entire life I have been trapped inside a body that I hate. It never does what I want it to. It always conspires against me.

As she completed the massage, my body felt like it could do anything I wanted, something I had never felt before. . . . For that portion of time, having sex with her (even if I had to pay for it) made up for a lifetime of rejection.

It was the most enjoyable experience I have ever had in my life. I would put it down to two things. For once I had gained control over my body, and it felt like I was in control of my life. The worst thing about having a physical disability is the lack of control I have in life. Everything is very clinical, get up at this time, eat at this time, have a shower at this time, and go to bed at this time. I have no control over these things. This time, I got to do things on my own terms. Second, it was the first time I felt like I was being treated like a sexual being with desires and needs that were important. All my life I have been viewed as an asexual being whose desires should be avoided or neglected. The trip to the brothel taught me not to be afraid of my sexuality and not to push it into the background.

Suppose you want to read Golden Age comics--y'know, for research, like me!--but you don't want to be the financial price for collectibles or the legal price for torrenting. In several libraries around the country, you can find hard copies or photo reproductions of thousands of books. Over the next few weeks I'll post links to the ones I know, starting with one of my favorite local hangouts, the New York Public Library. Along with other ample historic resources, the NYPL has an extensive array of comics microfiche from the Microcolour collection, an archival set produced back in the day when fiche was the cutting edge of serial storage. DC & Marvel have moved on to other formats, but this series remains a valuable means of accessing cover-to-cover images (including ads + text pages) of historic comics past.

From the official description:

Usually seen riding their bicycles and preaching door to door, these steamy young men explode with sexuality on each calendar page.

Behind the eye-candy, this calendar has a deeper story -- one that can reshape perceptions, heighten awareness, and perhaps encourage and inspire a broadened acceptance of human and religious diversity.

For more on the controversy sparked by this supposedly "novel" calendar, check out the latest from AVN and read the comments thread. Buy the calendar at Mormons Exposed.

A satirical art show whose web site no longer exists.

by Oliver Jeffers:

There has always been a strong undercurrent of narrative behind Jeffers’s work, but his current interest in making art lies in the anomaly between logical and emotional thinking.

While striving to find a harmonious balance between form and content, Jeffers is curious about the opposing means by which the world he lives in can be assessed. To explore this he has been drawing parallels between the arts and sciences, as in his recent solo show, in which figurative oil paintings were over laid with mathematical equations.’

A portent of the backlash unleashed by Earth Day hype, a West Village dog passes judgment on Natalie Portman's eco-fashion.

This is making the rounds of advertising and design, and deservedly so. Fun and educational, the way things should be.

I'm still working my way through a bunch of things from before the weekend, so for now, a brief illustration of how awareness of expense accounts can inflate business prices beyond the bounds of reason. As Crazy Eddie goes, so goes the world.

(Below the Javits pic--a selection of Crazy Eddie commercials, starting, of course, with the one where he's a superhero.)

Via Crazy Days and Nights, the story of a rock star (Gene Simmons of Kiss is the obvious guess) who refused to contribute to a charity fund raiser because he couldn't reap dividends:

So, what do you do when you are hosting a show and you have a member of a rock and roll super group come in? Well you try and get him to sign something for charity. I mean this group has been famous for 30 years and has licensed everything from condoms to coffins to eyeliner in order to make a buck. This singer and guitarist for the band was asked to autograph a guitar for a charity and he declined. Turns out he only signs things when he knows he will get a piece of the action. Since the show declined to give him a piece of the action, he declined to help the charity.

The Wooster Collective notes this urban art memorial to late Israeli cartoonist Dudu Geva:

Before his untimely death, Geva had been tongue in cheek - or rather tongue in bill - trying to convince Tel Aviv's mayor to liven up the city through weird, wacky and subversive art projects. One dream was to turn Tel Aviv into a city of ducks - an animal character he used often in his cartoons.

When Geva died, his dreams to liven up Tel Aviv with bizarre art installations and stunts lived on. The Duck was just one of the ideas.

Geva had been quoted saying that Tel Aviv was in dire need of decoration. "City Hall," he said, "is a lost cause. If a giant duck is placed on its roof, everything will be turned upside down. The idea is to bring joy to people's hearts and to make art a part of daily life."

DC display at New York Comic Con, originally uploaded by trexfiles23.

Given what I've been working on the past couple weeks, this banner made me smile.

University work is done for now & a conference paper for this Friday looms, but I'll be wrapping up the Blog@ Superman series later today, followed by observations on design and meaning gleaned from the Comic Con.

If the purpose of the OLPC program was to give children the opportunity to share our experience with computers, well, it looks like they succeeded. Via Slashdot:

Many participants in OLPC's 'Give 1 Get 1' program of last November are now encountering what has come to be known as the 'stuck key' problem, in which one or more of the keys on their XO-1 laptop's built-in keyboard become stuck in an activated position, or are activated when adjacent keys are pressed. As of January 30th, the official word from OLPC is that the root cause of this problem is unknown because '[t]here are several manufacturers of the keyboards.' ('So far we don't know of any _reliable_ method of fixing the keyboard or the exact root cause.') It is unknown just how widespread this problem currently is, as the 30-day manufacturer's warranty has already expired for most G1G1 participants. However, the OLPC forums are full of reports. OLPC is currently deploying the XO-1 to children in Mongolia and Peru, as well as other developing nations. If OLPC is actively deploying units with known, critical hardware bugs, without a dedicated support infrastructure in place, to children who have never seen a computer before, should they still be considered to be a responsible organization? Did OLPC deploy their hardware too soon?"

Via

CIMG1695.JPG, originally uploaded by Ramune Rabbit.

And the giant roaming Ugly Doll still stands out amidst the whirl. Have some University stuff to do before I get back to more public writing, but suffice it to say I met a number of fascinating & creative folks today. More about the good stuff they're doing this week.

I've been rather busy this weekend talking to folks + scribbling away in the professional lounge (free soda and popcorn--yay!) at the New York Comic Con. The one thing I've lacked is an internet connection, since the Javitz Center charges an expense account rate of $30/day that I'm refusing to pay on principle. I've also still not picked up what I need to hook the Mac up to my phone, so in the end, I guess, it's my own $@#! fault.

I'll be posting some more on the weekend soon enough, but as I'm looking over Archie stuff--make the connection, socially entrepreneurial people; it's there--I couldn't help post this fascinating Earth-Archie picture of our fair city. It would seem to be about a block or so from my office were it not for the fact that this looks nothing like Earth-Prime's City Hall or environs. No matter, though, as it aptly conveys the image of New York to a young 'uns who have never been there--tall buildings packed together in a cosmopolitan international scene, hybridized with their own town or suburban experience. It reminds me of Times Square, actually, which mirrors what visitors expect New York to be.

My first reaction to the following dress, featured on the marketing material for the Met's superhero fashion exhibit, was that it was a blatant trademark infringement.

Then Counterfeit Chic explained the visual joke.

Genius.

The nineteenth century temperance movement promoted its message by telling melodramatic stories of the effects of male drunkenness on wives and children. However well intentioned, the campaign was a major cultural force in relegating women to a separate domestic sphere. In the iconography of that era, men are public critters--they work, drink, play sports, do politics. Women maintain the home, take care of children, need to be protected and, well, nag men into giving up their freedom to perform their household duties.

Below: a new beer mug designed to keep guys from getting drunk & engaging in domestic abuse. Because nothing will make a guy respect women more than a stern face shouting "Stop" every . . . time . . . he takes . . . an effin' . . . sip.

The image above is new promotional art for Friends of Lulu, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting women readership and participation in the comics industry. One of the refreshing things about FoL is that while other nonprofits are trying to amp up fundraising by pimping sexed-up images of women (a recurring subject of skewering on this site, you might have noticed), Friends of Lulu strives to provide an alternative to the hypersexual reductionism that is all too common in modern superhero comics. I enjoyed meeting their estimable prez Valerie D'Orazio at their New York Comic Con today, before my own panel on comics copyright.

"After eating Matzah accidentally baked with radioactive water in a microwave oven, this future heroine discovered that the molecules in her body had been charged with hyper energy."

For the entire roster of the Corps, check out their page on International Hero. My favorite is probably Shabbas Queen, whose electromagnetic "wand needs to recharge one day out of every seven."

A local report in the NY Times tells of a Bronx man whose image of the Pope draws people to his shop selling stuff emblazoned with the papal likeness. It's Baudrillard meets social enterprise.

Judged by the reactions of passers-by, it pleases many people with no tickets to any pope-related events this weekend. They speak to the pope’s likeness or genuflect or stop and pay their respects, on this block next to the many Italian restaurants and bakeries on Arthur Avenue.

“For a lot of people, it’s as close as they’re going to come to meeting the pope,” Mr. Fusco said.

“Everyone wants a piece of the pope while he’s here,” he added.

Aside from communing with the life-size cutout, one can also connect with the pope by stepping inside the shop and picking up a memento of the pope’s visit.

Mr. Fusco is selling “Property of Pope Benedict” T-shirts and “I Love Pope Benedict” bumper stickers, as well as coffee mugs and aromatic “Pope-Pourri” pillows bearing the pope’s likeness. The stuff has been going like hotcakes, he said. It is a perfect example of how the pope offers spiritual guidance but also lets his followers with their livelihoods.

“He’s really providing for us,” Mr. Fusco said.

Pop iconic Catholic Andy Warhol would no doubt approve.

I wonder if this was authorized by Zorro Productions. In any case, his opponent might find these patented pants useful.

JustMeans' Martin Smith reports this revealing exchange, which illustrates how for some people the term "nonprofit" signifies a realm beyond finance:

Company 1: So what is the cost to using JustMeans?

Kevin: Well it depends on your revenue, what is your revenue?

Company 1: We are a non-profit. Non profits do not have revenue

(Ashoka Fellow, 10 years experience in the non-profit sector) Kevin Long: But, ahhh, ummm…I see

BALLOON DANCE at Hoochie Coochie, Bristol, originally uploaded by Mark Berry - Photographer & Graphic Designer.

UPDATE: The calendar story has been drawing a lot of attention in news stories around the globe, so I decided to do a little digging for some more info.  The website for the calendar is here, but it's out for the moment.  Before the story went viral the town had been having a bit of a debate over its propriety (think about the children, etc.), of which you can get a flavor in the forum on the village website.  This story has a photo of all seven women involved.

One thing that's interesting about the forum is that several people have now left their emails to get copies of the calendar.  Part of this may be out of interest in the calendar itself, but my bet is the prime mover is the news of their plight.  It's like buying cookies from Girl Scouts or candy from kids: the caring instinct kicks in. 

Still, if there really is a vibrant market in selling semi-nude pictures of charitable women to horny guys (and women--hey, we don't discriminate!), then maybe the socially entrepreneurial thing to do is set up a website for charity erotica.  Judging from the success of teen sites, "Girls Gone Wild" and Playboy's "Girls of" issues, I bet universities could get rid of those pesky alumni fundraising campaigns by selling their own branded porn.

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The first time it's clever; repeated, cliche. The story blames a distribution problem, but I wonder if there isn't a more systemic trend:

Seven middle-aged Spanish mothers who posed for a tongue-in-cheek nude calendar - a fundraiser for their children's tiny, rural school - are now saddled with debt and 5,000 unwanted copies.

"The sad part for us is figuring out what to do with them because it is not something you can recycle," said Rosa Garin, 36, one of the models in Serradilla del Arroyo, a village of 400 people in northern Salamanca province.

Skin mag classifieds via Vintage Ads

. . . as NYC officials include "harvested" subway water in their sustainability plan.

Mother Jones has a photo essay on a woman who makes robes for the KKK. Proceeds go to the care of her quadriplegic daughter.

"Ms. Ruth blesses each robe before sending them off. Here, she is holding a new, red satin robe against her chest as she blesses it."

For years horny teens knew they could rely on National Geographic to supply a parent-approved fix of topless women and mating animals.

AVN today reports the launch of a new site called National Pornographic whose initial offering, Cougars in Heat, would seem in its own way to continue the tradition.

From today's LA Times, old news to al Qaeda watchers but an instructive reminder nevertheless:

Like newly arrived fighters in Iraq today, recruits in the 1990s filled out applications that were kept in meticulous rosters. The shaggy, battle-scarred holy warriors of Afghanistan were micromanagers. They scrupulously documented logistical details -- one memo accounts for a mislaid Kalashnikov rifle and 125 rounds of ammunition.

"I was very upset by what you did," Atef wrote. "I obtained 75,000 rupees for you and your family's trip to Egypt. I learned that you did not submit the voucher to the accountant, and that you made reservations for 40,000 rupees and kept the remainder claiming you have a right to do so. . . . Also with respect to the air-conditioning unit, . . . furniture used by brothers in Al Qaeda is not considered private property. . . . I would like to remind you and myself of the punishment for any violation."

A stern Egyptian bean-counter set the austere policies. Mustafa Ahmed Al Yahzid, a 52-year-old trained as an accountant, ran the network's finance committee between 1995 and 2007, said Rohan Gunaratna, author of "Inside Al Qaeda."

Although Al Qaeda has endured thanks to a loose and flexible structure, its internal culture has nonetheless been surprisingly bureaucratic . . .

The documents . . . depict an organization obsessed with paperwork and penny-pinching . . .

"He is known as being a very stringent administrator, who keeps tight control of Al Qaeda's finances," Gunaratna said.

Accountability, metrics, efficient mission-centered budgeting--hey, what's not to like?

From an interview with writer Marv Wolfman, who gets it:

My belief is a fairly common one; villains can’t believe they are villains. They should be as carefully created and as subtle as your best hero can be. They need concerns, worries, problems, etc. They just see the world differently. The worst villains chortle, but the best villains simply can’t understand why others don’t see the world as clearly as they do. Sometimes the better villains are ones who want to help, or believe things are going to hell. Still others can feel they have a destiny that demands certain actions be taken. They should be motivated by the exact same things the heroes are, but the results of their actions cause greater problems.

Via

The MTA saves the environment by temporarily adding green tint to the lettering on our subway cards.

Who needs Baudrillard?

Not our organized charity, but caritas more generally. He's wrong in a way and right in a way, but then again, aren't we all?

Every accident is inferior to substance if we consider its being, since substance has being in itself, while an accident has its being in another: but considered as to its species, an accident which results from the principles of its subject is inferior to its subject, even as an effect is inferior to its cause; whereas an accident that results from a participation of some higher nature is superior to its subject, in so far as it is a likeness of that higher nature, even as light is superior to the diaphanous body. On this way charity is superior to the soul, in as much as it is a participation of the Holy Ghost.

When I was in college I couldn't stand stuff like this, but now it's kind of charming, like watching a goofy baby video on Youtube.

A vintage poster from WWII:

Alpha Flight 110 - The reaction, originally uploaded by One_From_RM.

Does a corporation have a responsibility to respect the moral qualms of the general public? Does it have a role in promoting civil rights and mutual respect? The comic letters page above documents the reaction back in 1992 when the superhero Northstar came out of the closet. Click here for the original readable size.

More than forty years ago, Andy Warhol & Roy Lichtenstein lifted comic book images to create their pop art. Now, thanks to Photoshop, their pop-art styles have themselves become subjects of mass replication. Above: a Lichtensteinianian portrait. Below: Lego Warhol Marilyn.

Via Russia Abandoned

A Maastricht bookstore within a repurposed Dominican church:

To be created at MIT, thanks to a five-year commitment of 3-5 million dollars . . . each year:

The new research center, which will be located at the Media Lab on the MIT campus, will […] explore new ideas in banking by inventing technologies that reveal and leverage insights across a wide range of physical and social scales, from one-on-one customer interactions to global transactions.

Professor Deb Roy, Chair of MIT’s academic program in Media Arts and Sciences and a pioneer in cognitive modeling, communication theory, and human-machine interaction, will serve as the Center’s Founding Director and Principal Investigator. “The Center sets the stage for potentially path-breaking research that will tap into core Media Lab capabilities and extend them in exciting new directions,” says Roy. “We will create a focus of intellectual energy that brings together researchers with radically different perspectives, including behavioral economists, social scientists, computer scientists, psychologists, designers, and others who share a passion for innovative thinking. It’s a recipe for producing unexpected new ideas that will trigger significant innovations in the world of banking.

This may sound like a sell-out of charity to corporate interests, but consider: for centuries banking was a religious institution, and double-entry bookkeeping emerged out of the charitable banks of early modern Italy. Just another example of why the emphasis on the so-called revolution of social enterprise obscures more than it reveals.

I'm at a computer for about 60 secs--enough time to title this post, basically--but I wanted to say a word about the talk + Q&A. Thanks to them, first, for arranging it + running such a professional get-together, not to mention the thoughtful card. The students had sophisticated questions--more sophisticated than many adults, honestly--that reflected the degree to which they have already immersed themselves in the realities of running an organization. More to say--including a list of resources and examples for students wanting to get involved--but in the ten seconds I have remaining:

Wow, was I impressed.

It's official: being a social entrepreneur makes you a lock to be a beauty queen. Last night Crystle Stewart (above), an entrepreneur working to be an "international philanthropist." This follows the crowning of Gina Valo as Miss Michigan. Her platform: "Building a Sustainable Future." Her aim: "Become an independent strategy consultant and social entrepreneur."

Except for a few minutes to toss up the latest distracting notes of interest, it's been a rather busy couple days. Class last night; assorted catch-up today. Tonight: prep for a talk I'm looking forward to, for a social enterprise shindig at Hunter College High School. Then . . . back to my various writing on Superman, intellectual property and systems theory.

Speaking of Superman, I've been added to the New York Comic Con pro panel on copyright to chat about the case, so if you're going to that part of the Con next Friday feel free to drop by and speak your mind. Other stuff is in the works too.

Back to prep . . .

Alambre, via Sobre ciencia y comunicacion

The Tax Domme specializes in tax advice for the adult entertainment industry:

To be an adult entertainer in the United States of America more often than not means leading a double life. To the outside world, the entertainer is a student, a wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister, best friend, coworker in a mainstream job and even fellow church congregant. When performing within their Adult profession they may be an exotic dancer, escort, phone sex operator, dominatrix, submissive, porn actress, smut writer or any combination of these. The reason for secrecy stems from the fact that there has been created a separate set of social rules for those that demand the product, sex, and those that supply it.

However, many consumers of sex, hold the entertainers to a separate set of social standards than themselves.

Her business seeks to help women rise above the economic difficulties of working in a taboo business. Besides running her tax "Dungeon," she also serves as a Financial Madam, managing investments. Arguably NSFW pics and tax advice here.

An archived Children's Museum exhibit, which included an opportunity to make & purchase your own Warhol-style prints.

Note the museum's equally pop view of copyright, which mistakenly assumes that you are free to sell works based on a personal photograph of copyrighted material:

In creating the Myths Series in 1981, Warhol revived the type of subject matter he used during the 1960s -- appropriated images from mass media as manifestations of American cultural values. Interestingly, for many of the images, including Uncle Sam and Santa Claus, the artist photographed models dressed-up as the Myths Series personalities. By using his personal photographs, Warhol was ablt not only to arrange the figures as he wished, but also to avoid some major copyright problems.

Over the past few days, news sites & blogs have apparently been dodging C&Ds from Lionsgate legal aimed at getting them to remove leaked "sexy nurse" photos of Scarlett Johannson from the upcoming Spirit movie. My reaction below, taken from a comment I left on another site:

The C&D on Hollywood Newsroom is not from Lionsgate legal. It’s from Special Ops Media, a local (235 Park Avenue South) PR firm that lists as one of its specialties online behavioral marketing.

One of the intuitive principles confirmed by cog-psych research is the appeal of taboo, scarcity and perceived persecution. I can’t think of a better way to co-opt social media than to get folks to think that they’re defying Big Brother. A faux C&D is a way of making people feel that they’re important, that they need to post the pics lest the pics disappear and that promoting the pics–and thereby the film–strikes a blow for human freedom.

Another theme from cognitive research is the way in which the drive to learn and transmit gossip is hard-wired in our brains. Note that the “leaked” pictures were apparently from costume studies, with the actress not smiling and the clothes not quite perfect. It’s imperfect information to which we shouldn’t have access–which makes us want to see it and pass it on.

We’ve already seen this strategy in the Marvel b0y viral, in which the company would seem to have used a fake C&D to create a sense that the site was leaking taboo gossip that could disappear at any moment. For Marvel Boy, the breakdown came, it seems, with the apparent lack of contingency plans for when uncontrolled gossip appeared in the comments thread. My guess is the Spirit marketing strategy might have been a bit more airtight if Special Ops hadn’t IDed itself overtly or included the odd pseudo-legal capitalized phrase “Copyright Infringement Violation,” which is what led me to look ‘em up in the first place.

CNN celebrates the work of this Senegal 501(c)(3) that uses textile, crafts and baked goods businesses to teach young women self-sufficiency.

Via Journalista, this meditation on meaning from graphic novelist Marjane Satrapi hits on a fundamental truth:

We meet in London. She can’t stand Britain because of the smoking ban. She suggests that we talk in her hotel room because at least she will be able to smoke there. She lives for her cigs, and is quite happy to die for them, she says. “For me smoking is like looking at your soul,” she says in a rasping hybrid accent. “There is something extraordinarily poetic about smoking — from the gesture of holding a cigarette, turning it on, smoking it, the taste of it, the smell of it, I love every-thing about smoking.” She has no truck with the kill-joys who want to stop us doing all the things that we enjoy — simply because it might prolong our life. “Anything that has a relationship with pleasure we reject it. Eating, they talk about cholesterol; making love, they talk about Aids; you talk about smoking, they talk about cancer. It’s a very sick society that rejects pleasure.” She’s working herself up into a climax of disgust. “Why should we live like sick people just to give some fresh meat to the ground? I hope my meat is so rotten no worm in the whole universe will want to come and eat it. I want to be rotten to accept the idea of dying. Every day you live you get one day closer to death. If you are never born you will never die. Giving birth is also giving death.” She smiles, having hit on the solution to combating death.

Video: Cartoon penguins and the Statue of Liberty show kids teach kids how cigarettes are synonymous with freedom in an old advertising cartoon for Kool.

A Something Awful parody

Via. If you don't get the reference, here's the history.

Cultural anthropologist Grant McCracken saw this sign on MetroNorth and meditates on why it doesn't work:

Accountant as super hero. Really? I mean, really? If there is a creature in the universe less like a super hero, it's an accountant. Or so the stereotypes tell us. Totally unfair, of course. And for all we know some accountants live lives of real adventure. Enron accountants, do you think?

So it's wrong to generalize this way, but it is also probably wrong to advertise...this way. Part of the problem is that this ad is trying too hard. A good ad is an act of metaphor. It transfers meaning from a world we know to a world we don't. In this case, it invites us to transfer what we know about superheroes to what we know about accountants. (This is straight out of Aristotle.) But some acts of transfer are more possible than others.

But perhaps I am missing the "premise." In the strange world that is Metro North, a new physics may apply. In this world, superheros are just little less heroic. Accountants a lot more grand. And the two are close enough, transfer is possible.

To see this transference played out in the real world, one need only look to the sandbox in which I play every day: social entrepreneurship. We tell people exhilarating stories of how they can create transcendent personal meaning and disruptive social change . . .

By amping up ROI and implementing rigorous metrics.

Now these things have their place, but the core mythology of social enterprise is, pardon the pun, unsustainable. It makes about as much sense in the long term as a flying CPA.

Update: Speaking of accountancy . . .

The federal government has filed a obscenity charges against a porn producer yesterday. My initial reaction: The feds still prosecute obscenity? Who knew?

Clearly other lawyers do, which is why they manage to build lucrative practices around such cases. I actually tell my nonprofit classes a goofy story about one such lawyer I've met--it involves a skin mag charity and a newlywed me--but First Amendment attorney Greg Piccionelli offers far more serious insight into what the latest indictment means for federal law.

In particular, he addresses the rather surprising decision to include child porn charges in what is clearly just an adult pornography case. The strategy that Piccionelli identifies is one that, were it to work, could have far-reaching implications for anyone who posts adult material on the web. If you want to get a sense of how the rule of law actually works in practice, check out his analysis.

Via

No.

"With the Freedom Tower headed steadily skyward (though not yet in view of sidewalk superintendents), the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is looking ahead to the moment when the public will want a slice of that sky.

It said Wednesday that it has begun searching for a private operator for the observation area planned on the 102nd floor of the tower, also known as 1 World Trade Center."

superman's dead, originally uploaded by michele cat.

An art photo inspired by a meditation on superhero funerals.

Superman is Dead*, originally uploaded by BillyWarhol.

Trademark and copyright bleed into commercial outsider art.

The social enterprise world has been oohing and ahhing over the genius of Al Gore's new Alliance for Climate Protection logo. Ooooooh . . . .Me = We! How profound and original!

Except, of course, it's neither, and folks in the ad industry have been ripping it as pedestrian and derivative. Here's Advertising Age:

Never mind the beyond-dubious assertion that "we the people" -- 95% of which believe in angels and Santa Claus -- should be making decisions about scientific policy, especially at the behest of a guy who made D's and C's in science while majoring in "government." The biggest problem with the logo is that it's just unoriginal. Now, where have we seen the pure genius of the we/me dichotomy before (I mean aside from the binders of the average junior high student)? Oh, yes, in this ridiculous spot for Converse:

As noted by Dallas News Religion, papal nuncio Archbishop Pietro Sambi has this to say about American influence outside its own borders:

"[I]t's been almost 40 years now that I've been moving around the world. I've noticed everywhere I go that the youth of the world sing American songs, they dance American dances, they eat American food. They use American English as the language of the computer. They cultivate an American mentality.

"If you look carefully at all this, you see that what America is exporting throughout the world, especially to the youth of this world, is not always the most noble and constructive qualities America has to offer."

Now I know as a do-gooder type I'm supposed to be "American culture sucks" and all, but frankly, American pop culture has been a far greater force for democracy and economic equality than foreign aid workers could ever dream.

Except, y'know, when they're teaching folks the Crank Dat Soulja Boy dance.

Turns out this isn't a Powerpoint slide from the upcoming Advisors in Philanthropy conference--it's an anti-drugs ad from Montana. Still, we can never get enough advice on extreme fundraising.

Via Osocio

Via Scientific American:

In another of the spate of recent studies to probe the effect of culture on information processing in the brain, Richard Lewis of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor showed that East Asians analyze cartoons differently than Americans do. Using culturally nonspecific cartoons, he found that East Asians first take the background context into account, whereas Americans initially concentrate on objects in the foreground. This holistic-versus-pointed focus matches the findings of other comparative studies and probably results from the different cultures’ outlooks.

A few New York stories from Page 6.0 or something:

• Bob Guccione decides not to donate ad space after receiving honor from charity
• Charity balls = pyramid schemes in which the rich don't pay
• International adoption kills local adoption, creates more unplaced kids
• NYC charity benefits selling fewer tickets as recession grows

Here's a rarity: a pin-up calendar from 1957 lampooning the popular crusade against comics as a corrupter of the youth, chronicled most recently in David Hadju's The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America.

The poem:

They're searching for a cause behind

Our kids' delinquent capers;

But whatever do they hope to find

Behind the funny papers?

Via Today's Inspiration, whose Flickr archive of comic strip advertising is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of commercial rhetoric. TI also offers this wonderful 1932 quote from a copywriter about the people who read comic strips:

Sterrett [a popular cartoonist] is frequently asked where he met Polly and her family, where they lived and so on. Such credulousness is only found among the sub-morons among his readers. But, Sterrett believes that that quality of realism which fools the cretins is what delights the morons as well.

A wonderful alignment of form and identity:

. . . as he realizes that childhood diversions can be hyper-commodified.

Yes, you never forget your first licensing deal.

Via The Comics Curmudgeon

Typos and the trademark symbol overkill make for unintentionally sexualized cause marketing PR from Milk-Boner (sic):

From: (Some Clueless Person)

Sent: Thursday, March 13, 2008 11:38 AM

Subject: MILK-BONER, AMERICA'S FAVORITE DOG SNACK, DONATES MORE THAN 40,000 POUNDS OF PRODUCT TO FEED THE CHILDREN IN CELEBRATION OF ITS 100TH ANNIVERSARY

______________________________________________________________________

PRESS RELEASE

MILK-BONE®, AMERICA’S FAVORITE DOG SNACK,

Donates MORE THAN 40,000 POUNDS of Product to fEED THE CHILDREN IN CELEBRATION OF ITS 100TH ANNIVERSARY

Read the whole thing at the Bad Pitch Blog, which charitably doesn't call attention to the bigger question raised by this press release: should we really "feed the children" with dog food?

And of course, who can forget the classic Batman boner-thon in the Joker's Comedy of Errors.

From Esquire in 1966, the height of Batmania in the U.S. View the all seven at Nico Pictures. Also archived on Photobucket (1, 2, 3)

Via Gothamist:

The Health Department is concerned about people drinking soda, because soda drinks are "empty calories." Health Department epidemiologist told the Times, "Your brain doesn’t register when you drink. You’re better off eating 400 calories of jelly beans than drinking 400 calories of soda.”

So I'm better off eating jelly beans? Woo hoo!

Seriously, there is a bigger lesson here. In fact, it's a standard part of my talks on Uncivil Society, which I'll write up here in a few.

The past few weeks of comics news in the mainstream press (Wertham, Siegel, and now this) remind me that things that seem like common knowledge to someone who knows about the genre can strike others as surprising revelations.

Case in point: Saturday's WSJ report that Batman isn't campy any more. "Holy Bats in the Belfry, Batman!" is an article I would have expected, say, in 1986, but give it a look if you're interested in reactions to Frank Miller & mainstream DC comics beyond message boards & cons.

My favorite part . . .

Nickie Phillips, an assistant professor at St. Francis College in Brooklyn, N.Y., who studies representations of crime and justice in comic books, and who has read the series . . .

I was just handed a piece of Dove chocolate. Inside the wrapper: inspirational advice branded as a "Promises (R) Message."

The Dove "Promise Message" campaign may seem innocuous enough, but consider the trademarked "Promises" in conjunction with positive advice. "Promises" is also the name of a prominent rehab center--so prominent, in fact, that my first impression in seeing the name was that it was in a joint marketing program with Dove Chocolate. Note the following snippet from the Promises website:

Promises Treatment Centers stay on-the-cutting-edge of drug rehab, alcoholism and addiction treatment, and can make many boasts and claims, including a widely recognized name . . .

Should PTC have considered the possibility that it would market, say, inspirational cards or signs and trademarked "Promises" appropriately? Perhaps they did and just haven't policed it--I haven't had time to check.

Which reminded me of something that caught my eye earlier this week. In New York's Gramercy Park there's a legendary old actors' club called The Players. Incorporated by Mark Twain, Edwin Booth and William Tecumseh Sherman, it's just around the corner from where Jimmy Cagney used to live, and IIRC was address-checked in his Strawberry Blonde as the place where Cagney's working-class character Biff Grimes first encountered the exotic foreign dish known as "spaghetti." The club conducts business with similarly elite clubs throughout the U.S., has a website and at least for a while sold branded merch.

And by the way, it's also commonly referred to as The Players Club.

A couple weeks ago, news started circulating of Lenny Dykstra's new sports entrepreneurship magazine, The Players Club. Its NYC office on Park Avenue is just a few blocks north.

I frequently get asked whether getting a trademark--let alone trademark in several categories, as Dykstra's venture did--is worth the price. I tend to think it is, especially if you're going to have an internet presence or do business of any kind outside your immediate geographic community.

Gothamist posts the following interview to commemorate the passing of hip-hop dance pioneer Frosty Freeze. His final statement in the video captures a profound dimension of identity: "I'll be remembered as a b-boy, but I'm gonna live and die as a human."

An actual identity card in Singapore, where members of the birth registry office translate babies names into English at birth:

Restyling the bar code into art, from actual items in Japan:

Trust Japanese to "glorify" every single mundane detail, to cheerfully enhance consumer experience - by adding something extra, a little thing, so easy to miss. But now, with these creative bar codes, the package design in Japan has truly become perfect.

by Jenny Holzer

by Travis King

The judge in the Siegel case has issued a new order pertaining to both the Superboy and Superman lawsuits. Click the link for a copy. I'll have more to say over at Blog@ when I finalize my Superboy post, which I began drafting last night.

The order in a nutshell:

• The parties are to spend the next 60 days negotiating a settlement
• After the 60 days is up, the parties are to file a joint report on what happened
• If they don't settle, the trial in the Superman case is scheduled to begin on November 4, 2008
• The court is setting aside ruling on the remaining issues in the Superboy case, along with setting the Superboy trial dates, until after the Superman trial is over

This emphasis on settlement is consistent with contemporary court practice, particularly in the Ninth Circuit, which was an innovator in the field. On a personal note, the Circuit judge for whom I clerked, the Hon. D.W. Nelson, pioneered this judicial movement--click here for a guest blog post in which she talks about her experience as a leader in ADR--Alternative Dispute Resolution--as well as her work in spearheading women's equality in the legal profession.

If you read the order (go ahead--it's short), you'll see that it highlights the two issues we've focused on as being unresolved: "1) Post-termination alterations to pre-termination derivative works and 2) Mixed use of trademarks and copyright."

As I was re-reading the judge's earlier rulings this past week, it became clear that the Superman ruling had changed the landscape considerably for the Superboy case, so much so that I'd decided to make that the subject of its own post. Again, it's a fascinating issue not only for comics, but anyone whose work involves developing copyrighted and trademarked material. Watch Blog@ for more details.

Ghost signs make walking in New York City a trip through time. One of the questions I've asked myself: why are so many of these old signs up so high?

This photo on Shorpy shows the reason: the old elevated train lines. View the expansive full-sized picture to see the signs in detail.

My favorite: "Cheap signs." In that one simple ad lies the history of modern communication.

Today's Wall Street Journal above-the-fold cover story on nonprofit hospitals is precisely the thing I warn about in my writing and talks on the rhetoric of design: the way that commerce and wealth can focus negative attention on charity. As dissatisfaction with the economy grows, the likelihood of blowback against charitable business increases.

The Siegel case hits on crucial areas of intellectual property law for all creators and organizations, including charities and social enterprise. Really, if you have any licenses or other intellectual property matters--and who doesn't nowadays?--this stuff is essential.

The series continues over on Blog@. The most recent entries have focused on how authors/creators can terminate a transfer or license despite the terms of the initial contract.

Gawker rattles the video promotion for an upcoming charity event in New York. The videos are reinforced by the not so subtle tag line: "Any reason is a good reason to come."

Truth to tell, I thought the ads were refreshing in their ironic self-awareness, as well as a bit more insightful on the mixed motives of charitable giving than academics' staid and oh-so-astute references to status-seeking, which says more about us than anything else. More on the YAI Brighter Futures event here.

Mural at Clinton School, originally uploaded by trexfiles23.

Kids intuitively see the connection between their magical dreams of freedom and the search for personal meaning in the mundane. Here is the mural facing the girls' dream of being superheroes.

The most poignant image for me: the woman in the Yankees uniform. For kids, anything is--or should be--possible.

Mural at Clinton School, originally uploaded by trexfiles23.

Writing on the Siegel case this week reminds me once more of the murals at PS 11 in Manhattan. The desire to be transcendent--to fly, to be magical, to travel to impossible places--is fundamental to human experience.

Siegel and Shuster used the comics medium to create a person who went beyond natural laws while embodying our higher moral nature. People who create corporate identities--charity, nonprofit, and yes, even for-profit--are doing much the same thing, albeit in different media with different effects.

One impulse taking expression in a variety of forms--it's the story of life.

Discussed and applied at Sexuality in the Arts.

A critical look at environmental design, now showing at Turin's Fondazione Rebaudengo.

Mosselprom - Boxer Box, originally uploaded by lamarde.

Because you really can't get enough Soviet cigarette ads, here's one for a branded cigarette called "Box" (note the gloves). The copy reads "Everyone smokes Box cigarettes."

The same time as this ad appeared (1928), Stalin was putting an end to Lenin's quasi-capitalist New Economic Program. Soon the stylish product ads would disappear, to be replaced by insipid images touting the glories of working together for the common good.

Blah.

Speak of the devil and he shall appear, the saying goes, and here's a perfect example: GOP.com's new SuperDonkey flash video, which appropriates others' intellectual property to solicit donations for the Republican Party.

Were Time Warner to send a C&D on the grounds that the video dilutes a famous mark, they wouldn't have a bad case. The parody exception arguably wouldn't save this, nor, given the overt fundraising, contending that this constitutes a noncommercial use.

Add to that the lift of a graphic from the Super Friends cartoon and you have an all too common scenario in the nonprofit world: the assumption that your organization is free to use commercial IP to market itself. One popular argument for letting stuff like this go: free speech and the sense of an implicit difference between the for-profit and nonprofit worlds.

Yet there are also implications for the claim that nonprofits by their very nature support the rule of law. If we're good with the law except when it works to our own disadvantage, how does this make us different from anyone else?

Thanks to the good folks at Blog@Newsarama, I'll be posting a series on the Siegel copyright decision over there throughout this week. Besides explaining the vagaries of intellectual property law, my posts will also explore corporate ethics and strategy in relation to creative work. I'll also be exploring some fun related material over on my side dedicated to religion and material culture.

Here's my first substantive Blog@ post, which introduces the theme of Superman, community and law.