Expounding on a couple of thoughts previously Twittered, ‘The Human Centipede’—the surprisingly well-crafted bad taste flick that set off this rapidly closing summer—might be the ultimate analogy for the realm in which I work. While the arse-to-mouth elements are pure PR and potential outlet behaviour made literal, the melded victims depicted onscreen act as the perfect analogy for the current blogscape too.
Information (by way of a press release and jpegs) enters one gaping maw, is digested before being shitted out for another outlet to consume and defecate…and so the cycle continues, but the song remains the same. Each time it’s digested, it gets a little harder to swallow. How much of the same information-no matter how dull-gets endlessly repeated from blog to blog, bouncing from WordPress to WordPress with a minor title and text tweak for SEO purposes? The new breed of “clobber” sites just run an E-train on the latest lookbook shots, each accompanied by some half-arsed commentary. I blame the “Monocle Man” —not Tyler, but the dull characters who imitate the solemn approach to consuming with nary a solitary element of insight.
Shouts to my buddies at Selectism for switching up the content creation, plus Garmsville, One-upmanship and Style Salvage for their knowledge of the subjects at hand. That’s a rare thing. Too many PR-mouthpiece blogs just serve to bewilder the client with his hand in the budgetary purse, confused by blog culture and stuck in the paper realm, and convince him that his money is being well spent. The majority of men’s fashion blogs are turning my monitor beige.
Overly-sincere shots of weathered-looking craftsmen picking at leather goods are getting tiresome. Monocle seemed to create a monster with their Quoddy shoot back in the publication’s early days. Occasionally even brands who’ve sold out and switched to the Far East years back, still seem to be trying for the “handmade” image in speedily distributed Vimeo virals and shoots. Now those who merrily took the money and ran are haplessly trying to curate a false heritage. Getthefuckoutofhere. There hasn’t been such a tiresome change in tact since those old enough to know better switched from weeping over sold-out Diamond Dunks to hyperventilating over moccasins.
the new Yukuten lookbook has the current promo-trait of quasi outdoor outfitter down to a tee. Beards, serious faces, trees, crepe soles. Facial haired woodland tableaus have got the internet going nuts. Can’t someone do something a little different, like basing it on ‘Hard Target’? Some hobo-styled human prey on the run? When you can take the opening titles of ‘The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams’ and screengrab them to create a similar collection of shots, you know we’ve hit self-parody. These are better, just because they’ve got bears in the mix as a bonus. If any creatives are reading, a spot of wildlife amid the tiresome faux-AmTrad would really liven things up next season…
Yukuten, 2010
Grizzly Adams, 1977
On the positive side, over the last hour, the works of Mr. Stephen O’ Malley, particularly on his 2009 cover design for KTL’s ‘KTL IV’ album as part of that ongoing drone with Peter Rehberg, the opening fashion show scene from 1983’s budget classic ‘Liquid Sky’, Harmony Korine and Proenza Schouler’s ‘Act Da Fool’ (now that’s a video lookbook) and Q-Unique’s ‘Crack Era’ promo have been keeping me happy.
In the case of Q, between all my Drumma Boy and Jim Jonsin sonics jocking, I forget how strong he is as an MC. This video is handstyle-heavy, and one of the best non-corny depictions of graff in a rap video since that ill ‘Style Wars’ promo for some hard-to-understand Aesop Rock track. It helps that the audio is decent too-the Les Baxter break stays immense (‘Run’ flipped it nicely too).
GWARIZM 
