Recently in bizzare Category

I know, I know, I know. I just posted a music video. But this was just too bizarre not to post about. I reccommend fullscreen even though it's bad quality.

And I shall say no more other than glub blub blub...blub blub!

via [fabulist]

This music video from Bat For Lashes is deliciously creepy. Reminds me a bit of that part in the movie version of To Kill a Mockingbird when Scout and her brother are walking out at night and you think someone unseen is watching them....I think it's when Scout's in the ham costume, or she's playing with a tire or something. Anyway, it's the same feeling of watching someone young and carefree all alone on a deserted street, just knowing something's going to jump out at them...or is it? Ha, maybe it's because the girl's riding her bike and wearing a sparkly sweatshirt like a 6-year-old.

The timing and transitions work really well in this little vid. The beginning is entrancing almost to the point of boredom - but it gets spine-tingly awesome less than a heartbeat later. If David Lynch had to direct a photoshoot for Teen Vogue, it might go something like this.

(There is a car accident scene at the end of this video...Just a warning in case you are sensitive to that kind of stuff. It's a dark blue car and it's flipped over. You don't see it happen, but you see the car.)

The other day, this post about shot-up polos from Attus Apparel made me think of a great book called Feed, by M.T. Anderson. It's a YA sci-fi novel, but don't let its genre deter you. Feed is smartly written and an entertaining read, even if you're an old-ish adult or don't typically enjoy sci-fi. Told through the eyes of a 14-year-old boy who thinks visiting the moon "completely sucks" and would rather watch the show Oh? Wow! Thing!, Anderson's narrative paints the internet (the feed) as the ultimate marketing tool for corporations. Cultures and subcultures are easily profiled and sculpted to consumerist perfection due to constant interaction with and observation by the feed. For a more in-depth review, follow this link.

A common motif in Feed is the constantly changing trends that get more and more ridiculous every week. One of the fads is remarkably prescient of this concept by Attus Apparel:

When we got there, Calista and Loga were getting out of Calista's car, and it was like, Whoa, because they were wearing all torn-up clothes. They were walking normal, but they looked like they'd been burned up and hit with stuff...

"Yuh," said Loga. "It's Riot Gear. It's retro. It's beat up to look like one of the big twentieth-century riots. It's been big since earlier this week."
- Feed, pp 158-9

Maybe those Attus Apparel guys read Anderson's novel? NOTCOT speculates all this violent pre-distressing of clothing is a response to society's obsession with crime dramas like Law & Order or CSI. I'm thinking it has more to do with conditioning our youth to get used to war, especially since this little vid by the company mentions that one guy's dad used to be a marine...Either way, this fashion statement's straddling some yellow cautionary tape between amusingly ironic and blatantly distasteful. They're not charging a hundred bucks for bullet-holes. I found it interesting that the little logos flashed at the end seem to call out to a number of different youth subsets - the jock, the frat boy, the punk, the xtreme sports lover...it's all a bit too clever.

Did you know that if you drink this organic espresso from David Lynch, you'll grow a third arm out of your ear? In fact, everyone you come in contact with after that will grow a third arm out of their ear, until one day you'll find a beautiful woman who instead grows a third ear on her arm. She'll ask you to suck on it. After sharing an intense moment of intimacy, you'll find yourself sitting in front of your computer with only two regular arms again, staring at the slogan, It's all in the beans...and I'm just full of beans.

Dude, I need to buy this coffee. Actually, you need to buy me this coffee. It's my birthday in two weeks!