TILDA SWINTON SQUARE DANCE FLASH MOB

baruchandroll:

Yeah, that’s what I said, just click already.

WHY ARE YOU READING THIS GO WATCH IT.

I LOVE TILDA SWINTON SO MUCH

August 28

Monetizing the brick and mortar store
or
How the Old Navy App should work.

So here’s the idea. You’re at Old Navy and you find a shirt you like, but OH NOES they’re out of your size. You know there’s like ten Old Navys within a reasonable bus ride, but it’s a $15 shirt at Old Navy … is it worth the trip to try and find out? Sometimes one of their helper robots will offer to call another store, but it’s like shooting fish in a barrel. Maybe it’s there, maybe they can find it, maybe it will still be there when you show up. More than likely, you sigh and put that medium back on the rack and go look at something else.

But this time, let’s imagine you do something different. You pull out your smartphone/cameraphone/whatever, and you fire up your gap.com app. You pay $20/year to subscribe to it, but you shop at gap/old navy/banana republic pretty much all the time, and you put it on your gap card anyway, so it’s not a big deal. You grab the tag, which has a QR code like the one above, maybe that says “OLD NAVY” in the middle. You snap a picture of it and the app pops up STUPID HIPSTER SHIRT WITH SNAPS IN HIDEOUS RED PLAID, SKINNY FIT, SIZE MEDIUM, $14.95. You click the button to edit details, grab the drop-down menu and change it to XL b/c you’ve been eating too much mall chinese food lately. Now you click the SEARCH button, and a list pops up showing all the stores in your area and how much stock they think they have (if you’ve been to IKEA or threadless.com you know what I’m talking about). You pick the store that’s on your way to work and you press the HOLD AT STORE button. The app hums for a minute, plays one of those stupid super-model-quins commercials, and you slip your phone back in your pocket and go get a jamba juice.

A little while later (maybe ten minutes, maybe half an hour, depends on a lot of factors we won’t get into today) you get a text message from OLD NAVY; “GOOD NEWS we found the item you wanted and it will be held at (the store you selected) for 72 hours; please present hold code 1z7wi4x at the customer service counter”. The next day you swing by on your lunch break and when you show up at your favorite dive bar that evening everyone compliments you on your awesome new western shirt, did you get it at Hollywood Vintage?

Now, replace OLD NAVY with APPLE STORE and replace XL WESTERN SHIRT with IPOD TOUCH 16BG 2ND GENERATION and perhaps you see the potential here. Or, since both of these companies have fairly robust online ordering systems and could easily tie that into the app, imagine scanning the QR code for your favorite salad at your local deli, that they only make about once a month, and getting a text message whenever a new batch is in the cold case. Or your local second-run movie house texting you a week before they get your new favorite Christopher Nolan movie.

My point is that amazon trumps indie bookstores almost exclusively on convenience and selection, but the longest tail in the world doesn’t mean anything when OMG I WANT THAT RIGHT NOW. Brick and mortar stores still win on the grounds of being able to find what you want and take it home that day, but there are lessons they can learn from e-tailers that can help make their customers feel rewarded and not desperately targeted.

Image via 2d-code.co.uk

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I just bought ‘The Lost Boys’ for $5. Target may be evil but I love this movie.

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“ … the biggest reason why there is so little working class consciousness and unity in the Untied States (and thus, why class-based programs to uplift all in need are so much weaker here than in the rest of the industrialized world), is precisely because of racism and the way that white racism has been deliberately inculcated among white working folks.

Tim Wise » With Friends Like These, Who Needs Glenn Beck? Racism and White Privilege on the Liberal-Left

(via notemily)

(via ultralaser)

I’m sure it’s a typo, but I think “the Untied States” is the best two-word description of the current state of American politics I’ve ever heard.

It sums up so much of the disconnect, ignorance, and lack of basic empathy that is infuriating modern progressive liberals and alienating the young, who don’t see the point in voting if nothing’s ever going to change.

I think one of the strongest elements of Obama’s campaign is that he electrified the youth vote into action. Older Americans (my parents, notably) criticized Obama’s campaign for portraying him “like a rockstar”, but where they saw arrogance and vanity, I saw a politician who was trying desperately to catalyze some action from those who came of voting age during two Bush presidencies, and entered citizenship with increasing despondency and lack of faith in the system.

I’ve heard arguments from friends and acquaintances that they “don’t vote because it doesn’t matter”. The inherent fallacy of that, of course, is that if you don’t like the way things are going, voting is your first mechanism of action. Activism and actually running for office would be the next few steps, but voting for the change you want is literally the least you can do to effect it. If the only people voting are people you disagree with then you will continue to be disenfranchised and they will continue to walk over you.

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“ I don’t know how many of you have been to New York, but if a building is two blocks away from anything, you can’t see it.

Sen. Al Franken at the Illinois State Fair

meloukhia:

Kai Wright at Colorlines:

Al Franken Shows Dems How to Stand Up for Values

It’s a lot more than other party leaders have said. The closest thing to a defense of Muslim Americans we’ve seen is President Obama’s legalistic parsing of rights versus wisdom. Harry Reid came out against the Cordoba House development, in what seems a plainly cynical effort to steal the issue from his November challenger, Sharon Angle. As did Howard Dean, whose explanation of how he’s supporting the development by opposing it is downright dizzying. Nice to see at least one prominent Democrat stand up plainly defend progressive values.

(via ultralaser)

August 27

I’m walking around with my sunglasses pushed up on top of my head. I’ve become THAT GUY.

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