RVCA – Behind the Non-Brand

The Dude is not a fan of brands in general. Who cares about who makes what. Rock what you like regardless of a name attached to it.

As the wise men from Run DMC once said, “Calvin Klein ain’t no friend of mine; don’t want nobodies name on my behind.”

To avoid branding entirely these days is pretty much impossible. Brands are everywhere. We have to be very selective. But the one brand I not only don’t mind rocking, but actually enjoy promoting is RVCA.

RVCA has some of the best duds going, but beyond that, these cats are super rad. They are more of an “artist network” than a brand, and they are all about promoting diverse talents, rad gear and gnarly art.

This is a pretty cool behind the scenes of what the brand – I mean artist network – is all about…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcKiQQnSU48[/youtube]

(Tip ‘o the hat to Desillusion Magazine.)

Sugru for President! Sugru Will Save the World!

A bit over the top? Perhaps.

But there are a few things I know…about this post, anyway…

  1. If Sugru ran for President, I would have voted.
  2. Sugru just might save the world. From what? From anything. Sugru brings the awesomeness. Hard!
  3. This is one of the best product pitches I’ve seen…ever.
  4. The Sugru dude can hang with the Dude any day. Love his stilo (that’s style folks).

This rubbery, play-dough, super glue/concrete stuff is downright amazing. It may just solve all the world’s ills.

Do yourself a favor and get ye some Sugru…STAT!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fOSo_EN-y4[/youtube]

(Hat tip to the Swissest of Misses)

That’s Tight! (TGT) The Dude Can Finally Grow Up.

My Mom’s prayers have been answered. The Dude can finally carry a wallet.

Here’s the “wallet” I’ve been carrying for years.

Dude's Wallet - Not Tight

Dude’s Wallet – Not Tight

Sweet hairbands, right?

Momzilla has tried numerous times to buy her bambino an actual wallet. But it’s just not my thang.

I’m not a fan of clutter, and I don’t dig a lot of stuff in my pocket. The Dude is a simple man.

Thank you TGT for making the Dude and my Moms happy. The perfect wallet. At 35, I can finally graduate to an actual wallet.

TGT Cowman 2.0

TGT Cowman 2.0

Support this KickStarter campaign. It’s pretty great, and Jack Sutter seems like a pretty rad dude.

Nice work Jack.

Darn right I have a sweet TGT Cowman 2.0 headed my way!

A Remote Helicopter that Drops Ping Pong Balls. Need I Say More?!

iStrike Shuttle

iStrike Shuttle

“Let me write my blog post about stupid helicopters that drop ping pong balls,” says the sarcastic pregnant lady playing backseat blog writer.

Ladies just don’t get it.

But I bet the dudes in the audience are lovin’ this one.

A remote helicopter that is controlled by your iPhone…AND drops ping pong balls!!!!

Video evidence below. Wait for it, wait for it…50 second mark, bam! Dropping ping pong balls.

You can remotely drop a ping pong ball on the lady that does not understand why you would enjoy remotely dropping a ping pong ball. Awesome.

Need I say more? I think not.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHkXJpftxe4[/youtube]

32 Year Old Dude Interviewed by 12 Year Old Self

I don’t know anything about Jeremiah McDonald, but he has completely won the Dude over.

An awesome idea played out to perfection. 12 year old Jeremiah interviews his 32 year old self. 20 years later. 1992 – 2012. Classic.

Very clever. Very charming. Kudos Jeremiah.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFGAQrEUaeU[/youtube]

Live Music for All the Old Fogies – i.e. Parents

Ryan Montbleau

Ryan Montbleau

A few weeks ago I commented on the inverse relationship between getting older – and being a parent – and enjoying live music – i.e. the older we get, the more parenting we do, the less live music we get out to see.

I mentioned that…

Concerts take on an entirely new perspective as a parent. I love music, and live music is amazing, but these days the Dude is happy to trade a great Pandora station for a live show. That just seems like a lot of work. :)

I admit that I miss live music, but the trade off of time spent with the family is a swap I’m happy to make.

But now, thanks to one of the Dude’s favorite under-the-radar musicians – Ryan Montbleu – the old fogies among us no longer have to make this trade.

Ryan is a singer/songwriter from Boston that I’ve been listening to for many moons. He has a great bluesy, soulful rock/folk style that is hard to pin down, but very impressive.

He’s been pumping out great tunes and touring for years. Ryan, and his band, put on a great live show. I’m amazed that he is not more well-known.

It’s been years since I’ve seen them live, but I’d love to see more of them.

Wish granted. Thanks Ryan.

This is the first I’ve heard of a band embracing the interwebs like this, and not only am I a huge fan of the idea, but I can only assume that it is a great marketing idea for the music – in fact, I heard about this on Mashable.com, so the word is spreading. Nice work Ryan.

So what am I carrying on about?

Free live streaming of every show. Awesome.

You can watch every live show that The Ryan Montbleau Band performs at www.RMBLive.com.

I am super jazzed to be able to see live music on a regular basis…and from one of my fav bands. Thanks for being so rad Ryan.

Here’s a quick taste of what Ryan has to offer – a great jam about the joy of getting older…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM8fHHvsLpw[/youtube]

Sabotage for the Kids – RIP MCA

As we all probably know by now, one of the trifecta that make up the Beastie Boys passed away last week. I was tempted to scribble out a post memorializing MCA, but the interwebs were bursting at the seams with MCA-related posts; so I held off.

I mourned in my own way – I added a Beasties station to my Pandora (how did I not have a Beasties station?!) and cranked up the car stereo while cruising. I’m sure MCA can respect this.

Born in the late 70’s, the Dude is a product of the 80’s, and as a result, a product of the Beastie Boys. I can still recall sitting in my 4th grade class and seeing the Beasties cassette for the first time as a friend passed it around like illegal contraband.

Music was still rebellious at that point, and it doesn’t get much more rebellious than early Beastie Boys.

The Beasties will forever hold a special place in my musical heart. So, it’s sad to see a founding member move on – especially at the young age of 49. To be honest, it seemed like the Beasties would fade away a number of times, but they always found a way to stay relevant. With MCA gone, there is no way to make a full recovery, and with that, it feels like a piece of childhood for many gen x/y’ers is passing on as well. Hence all of the online memorializing.

I stayed out of the online memorializing for a week or so, but now I’ve been pulled back in. A great new video has brought the MCA memorial to the level of kids, and the Dude can relate to kids. So, I had to jump in.

Here’s a tribute to Adam Yauch – aka MCA – by James Winters and his family. James, the Dude digs. Nice work.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/42106181[/vimeo]

Hats off to Kottke.org for sharing the link.

The World at Your Fingertips – MaKey MaKey

A few posts ago I linked to a Kickstarter campaign for slip-on shoes for everyone – i.e. hickies. A pretty neat idea, but sort of leaning to the goofy side of life. My next Kickstarter link seems to have a bit more potential.

Are you familiar with Kickstarter? It’s a relatively new (year or so?) way for ideas to get funded. Some lame, and some totally awesome. Basically, you put your idea online, ask for money, and if people dig it, they’ll give you money in exchange for some type of return – a free book when it comes out, acknowledgments in the credits, etc.

Giving more power to the people – i.e. a new way to take power from The Man. Rad.

Now on to the brilliance. These dudes from MIT have created a neat little device that will turn just about anything into a touchpad that will control your computer. The video below demonstrates some great – and goofy – examples, but picture controlling your computer with a banana or turning your stairs into the keys of a piano (Big anyone?).

I’m not sure where this technology will take us, but my guess is we’re just scratching the surface. Technology is insane!

You can find out more on the MaKey MaKey Kickstarter page.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfQqh7iCcOU[/youtube]

Hats off to Trent Walton for sharing the link. I’m easily following 100+  blogs at this point, so I’m not all that familiar with Trent, or where I came across him, but he seems pretty cool. Worth a look if you’re into the radness.

Dude’s News

The quantity of information available these days is amazing.

A short 10 – 15 years ago, the biggest source of information was TV and radio. We are now inundated with information almost constantly. We are riding the information superhighway after all.

I think it’s about as rad as rad can be. I love finding new sources of information, learning something new, starting a new hobby, teaching myself how to do something I’ve never done. The pace of learning has exploded.

I’m sure it’s a double-edged sword. I’m sure negatives can be argued, but I dig the plethora of information at our finger tips. The drawback I find is having the time to consume all of the ideas that I’m interested in.

I have so much great information coming at me through my RSS feeds (If you’re not familiar with RSS feeds, it’s worth the read – awesome way to collect info you’re into without having to go find it.) that it’s impossible to follow every idea down the rabbit hole, and even content that I dig is often pushed aside or forgotten.

I’ve been collecting a few nuggets of greatness in my email for a week or two. My goal has been to write separate posts for each, but time keeps passing, and the content keeps coming. So, rather than try to get individual posts out, I figure I’ll share them all at once under the amazingly clever name of “Dude’s News”…I know, you love it.

Let’s start with some Local News

Local News
The Boy is a lunatic, and the lunacy grows everyday. Running, screaming, throwing, kicking, and a whole bunch of eating along the way.

Words are coming slowly but surely. He is always moving and exploring, and he’s becoming much more sure-footed. It’s fun to set him loose in the yard and follow him around. A great way to slow down and enjoy some everyday exploring.

The Princess is crushing first grade. Reading like a champ, loving piano lessons, and being a fantastic big sister.

The local news is all unicorns, gummie bears, and rainbows.

Science
Here’s a very cool video from TED (as in “Ideas worth spreading,” TED) about the complex experimenting and decision making that babies and toddlers use to figure out the world around them. I get the impression that the collective “we” views babies as lacking in some of the cognitive muscle that we flex as we get older. But maybe “we” have it wrong.

Judging by Little Dude’s constant exploring mentioned above, I’m inclined to think that psychologist Alison Gopnik may be onto something here. She says something in the video about toddlers not having ADD but rather lacking the ability NOT to pay concentrated attention to all of the amazing things around them, and that seems to fit Little Dude to a T.

Here’s the video description: “Babies and young children are like the R&D division of the human species,” says psychologist Alison Gopnik. Her research explores the sophisticated intelligence-gathering and decision-making that babies are really doing when they play.”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cplaWsiu7Yg[/youtube]

In other science news, here’s an article from Discover titled: 100,000-Year-Old Paint Factory Suggests Early Humans Knew Chemistry.

As in one hundred thousand, 100k, one hundo thousundo! That’s craziness!

As a culture, how can we feel comfortable with the idea that we have any clue about what is going on? We know of a blink in time of history.

Jesus was around two thousand years ago. We have written history for something like ten thousand years. That still leaves 90,000 years between our knowledge and people sophisticated enough to craft paint.  That’s “20,000-30,000 years before archaeologists had previously thought such complex thought processes possible.”

That’s a huge amount of time. Wild.

Lastly in the science department, this is what the Universe looks like. Insane, right? The Universe. You’re looking at it. A second ago I implied we don’t know anything, and now we have an example of us mapping out the entire Universe. Life is full of paradoxes.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/29769051[/vimeo]

Nature
As described on Kotke.com: “Richard Feynman talking about the beauty of science and of the natural world over a bunch of video footage taken from NASA, Microcosmos, and BBC nature docs like Planet Earth.”

This video is super cool. Got a special place in your heart for Mother Nature? You will after you watch.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRmbwczTC6E&feature=related[/youtube]

In a similar nature-loving vain, here’s a great video of a dude following mountain climbers for National Geographic. The Dude is becoming increasingly intrigued by mountain climbing.

If you have a chance (especially if you have Netflix), check out 180° South. It’s a surfing/mountain climbing “documentary,” and it’s pretty rad…with a rad soundtrack. It gave me a new outlook on mountain climbing. A completely isolated and useless act, but you come back with a new perspective. Anyway, onto the feature presentation.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/27786807[/vimeo]

Amazingly Cool
In the amazingly cool department, ABC News is reporting that the DeLorean is coming back! Back to the Future…Present.

And, it’s coming back as an electric car.

Nice work making electric cars cool. Didn’t think it could be done.

Economics
And to round out the Dude’s News coverage, let’s take a quick look at a report from Bloomberg stating that DC now outpaces Silicon Valley for the highest household income in the country.

As Don King is fond of saying, “Only in America.” How is the region that houses the government and all of the cronies that go along with it the highest paid area of the country? How is that possible?

Federal workers earn an average of $126,000 in total compensation!

Our tax money pays them, correct? Do we see the shitstorm going on in country/world right now? Are they really worth an average salary of $126,000? Things are waaaaayyyyy out of whack these days.

Amazingly Cool Part Deux
To end on a positive note, let’s showcase what could be one of the greatest father/son bonding experiences of all time – and absolutely the greatest Hotwheels track the Dude has every laid eyes on (hats off to TheKidShouldSeeThis.com for another gnarly video)…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzTRTQkmHpU&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Wow! We’re Small.

Rather than paraphrasing a relatively short post from another blog, I’m just going to do the old copy and paste routine. Below is a post titled “The Tiny Humanity Bubble” on the jackadamblog that offers some potential mind-blowingness.

“Mankind has been broadcasting radio waves into deep space for about a hundred years now — since the days of Marconi.

That, of course, means there is an ever-expanding bubble announcing Humanity’s presence to anyone listening in the Milky Way. This bubble is astronomically large (literally), and currently spans approximately 200 light years across.

But how big is this, really, compared to the size of the Galaxy in which we live (which is, itself, just one of countless billions of galaxies in the observable universe)?

To answer that question, I put together the following diagram of our galaxy with the “Humanity Bubble” embedded within it. You’ll need to click on it to get the full resolution image and zoom in on the highlighted region.”

Wow, we’re tiny! Nature is so much more substantial than we commonly give it credit for. We are a just a tiny, tiny piece of the ever-expanding big picture.

It seems to me that aliens/intelligent life should be a foregone conclusion given the sheer magnitude of the known Universe. How could we be arrogant enough to believe that we could be the only game in town?!