Carbonated Culture: March 2011

Saturday

Mauer, Solid Gold sing in Colle+McVoy's Explore Minnesota Spot

The hokey, yet catchy new Explore Minnesota ad by Minneapolis agency Colle+McVoy debuted this week, featuring a cameo by local indy darlings, Solid Gold, fresh after a successful SXSW trip performing at the Gayngs Affiliyated Showcase in Austin, TX. Speaking of solid gold, the more recognizable appearance by filthy rich Twins catcher, Joe "Mega Millions" Mauer, is highlighted at the end singing like a beautiful autotuned angel. Side note, the YouTube screen caption above makes Mauer look sickly and malnourished, agree?

Tuesday

The First Avenue Mobile App Has Arrived!

About the First Avenue & 7th St. Entry App:

The legendary music venue, First Avenue and 7th St. Entry in Minneapolis, MN, launched an amazing app that lets you track shows, preview artists, purchase tickets, view photos, and review concerts. In addition, you can connect to First Ave's live Twitter feed and join in the conversation with other patrons at the show, displayed on TVs throughout the venue. Developed by Mobile Roadie, or MoRo, an online do-it-yourself mobile app site where you can inexpensively build and manage your own apps.

Download here or use the QR code at the bottom of the post with your bar code scanner on your iPhone or Android phone.

Released: March 1, 2011 Copyright 701 Ventures Inc, 2011.

http://mobileroadie.com

http://www.first-avenue.com/

A Brief History of Title Design

Recently, I stumbled upon this gem of a video on the Minneapolis Egoist website. It's pretty straight forward, just a number of movie titles, showcasing the evolution of fonts and graphics ( I love the Art Deco King Kong title myself), but the real bonus was the soundtrack featuring RJD2's song, "Ghostwriter." A perfect combination of music and design, all wrapped up and presented in a two and a half minute package. Enjoy.

A Brief History of Title Design from Ian Albinson on Vimeo.
http://themplsegoist.com

Monday

Morgan Spurlock Takes on Advertising

The documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, who created "Super Size Me," is now taking on the advertising industry with "The Greatest Movie Ever Sold." Apparently, he financed the entire film using product placement and sponsorships. Should be interesting...

Sunday

Minneapolis Artist Spotlight: Adam Turman

Adam Turman's iconic screen prints featuring Twin Cities landmarks and his unique, pop-art inspired work have been surfacing at local shops and galleries around town for sometime now. His colorful and whimsical style brands Minneapolis residents as beautiful, beer obsessed, bike fanatics.... and he isn't to far off. His art can be purchased at one of my favorite local stores (even though I haven't been in since I was politely rejected by the store clerk, ha... she had a bf....she's so cute though), "I Like You!" or online at AdamTurman.com

Every letter in the piece "Bars, Bikes, and Beers" is taken from landmarks around the city

Grain Belt Brewery sign above Hennipen Ave Bridge

Model depicted in this piece standing in front of St. Anthony falls and the Stone Arch Bridge

Varsity Theater in Dinkytown

Saturday

How to Fill Time Until Mad Men Season 5: LA Noire

Our favorite Senior VP of Accounts at Sterling Cooper, Ken Cosgrove, has been moonlighting as a detective in 1940s Los Angeles. Apparently before he helped make such products as Glo-Coat and Seacore Laxatives a house hold name, he filled in as a gumshoe by gathering evidence against the Black Delia killer, pulling bloody pipes out of garbage cans and questioning witnesses in a firm, yet polite manner. As we wait for AMC to get their stuff together and finally renew the contract for Mathew Weiner's hit show, we can jump in to LA Noire for Xbox 360 and PS3 on May 17th.

LA Noire, published by Rockstar games, is going to revolutionize video game making forever. Developer Team Bondi has created a way to directly video record actors and rendering them in real time.

"L.A. Noire represents a total break with conventional game development and animation. Instead of recording dialogue, animating, and performing motion capture as separate steps of the process, Team Bondi (using technology developed by its sister company Depth Analysis) is capturing human performances just as a filmmaker would – except instead of generating movie footage, they come away with fully animated 3D models. It's a tremendously advanced process." - Game Informer

http://www.rockstargames.com/lanoire/

http://www.gameinformer.com

Artist Damien Hirst: Olympic Ambassador?

Hirst posing with his diamond encrusted skull which sold for a record $198,000,000 at auction

"As the world descends on London for the 2012 Olympics, the formaldehyde animals, diamond skulls and spin paintings of Damien Hirst will demonstrate to the visiting masses the prowess of contemporary British culture. Tate Modern has announced that Hirst's first major retrospective will coincide with the sporting event."

FUN FACT! My former boss, real estate mogul Ralph Burnett and owner of the Chambers Hotel in Minneapolis, has the second largest collection of Hirst pieces behind Charles Saatchi! Tagged under: WOW! COOL~!! OMG!

gaurdian.co.uk

Street Art is Soooo Passé

Before street art becomes too mainstream and commercialized (thanks Shepard Fairey!), check out this street art viewer utilizing Google's Street View sponsored by Red Bull (sigh.)

Agency: Loducca Brazil for Red Bull

http://themplsegoist.com

http://streetartview.com/

Wednesday

My Playlist.

Hello again reader. I believe you don't know me as well as I think you should. I'm going to share with you my playlist to help you get an insight on my phenomenal (or awful, depending on your preference) taste in music. Music is the window into a person's sole. Yep, right underneath your shoe. Take a look.

Monday

Donate

'ello gorgeous

Gorgeous, a British production company, features some of the most creative directors in advertising today. One of my personal favorites ads for a few years now is Budweiser's "All Together Now." Shot in Chicago and directed by Chris Palmer, features a clever, literal video of the Beatles classic song with the same name.

Blu Dot's Swap Meet was a Success

Minneapolis advertising agency Mono recently created a website for the upscale, modern furniture store Blu Dot. The purpose of the site was to have people post creative offers to Blu Dot, from random art collections to an up-close-and-personal talent show of the most bizarre kind, in exchange for their high-end designer furniture. My favorite bids are Emilo Estevez's character from The Breakfast Club offer (or threat) to "tape all your buns together," and The Disco Ball Helmet. And most importantly, Minneapolis' own Har Mar Superstar was in the online commercial!

Har Mar Superstar explains/pimps the Blu Dot Swap Meet. from Blu Dot on Vimeo.

http://mono-1.com

http://swapmeet.bludot.com/

Sleater-Kinney: Burn, Don't Freeze

Have you ever had one of those moments when you just heard a band for the first time and asked yourself: "where have you been my whole life?" That just happened to me over the weekend when I discovered Sleater-Kinney, a Portland area band that has been around since 1994. I just realized that Cary Brownstein, who is in the band, is also in the new TV series, "Portlandia" on IFC. I've watched a few episodes, but I just assumed she was just an underground comedian/writer. She's pretty talented.

Burn, Don't Freeze! by zachariahzutler

Sunday

ESPN: Choose Wisely NCAA Ad by Wieden+Kennedy

Wieden+Kennedy's new ad for March Madness debuted today featuring an array of ways people will pick their winning bracket. I'll give you a surefire tip that will guarantee victory for the match up featuring George Mason vs. Villanova. Choose Mason, because I chloroform ragged the entire Villanova squad, tied them up, and put them in my trunk.
Wieden+Kennedy
Creativity Online

Social Media Hell at SXSW

RG/A developed a mobile app for the "South by Southwest" music festival this week in Austin, TX. This app that will let your annoying, social media obsessed friends brag every minute while they enjoy the yearly ritual. Mediabistro.com breaks down the mobile app's main features, which are cleverly related to the 7 deadly sins:

* Lust: what/whom people are loving at SXSW
* Debauchery: check-ins at Austin bars
* Gluttony: check-ins at Austin BBQ and Tex-Mex joints
* Greed: the most aggressive overtweeters
* Wrath: what/whom people are hating at SXSW
* Idolatry: who’s being tweeted about most at SXSW
* Vanity: who’s “tweeting too hard” about themselves; i.e., naked self-aggrandizement
Social Media Hell
Mediabistro.com