Dirty Thirty - Limited Edition Diesel Jeans For €30

Expect queues outside Diesel stores on Friday 10th October if the rumor of €30 Diesel denim jeans turns out to be true. Recently several sites (Denim Blog, Set Your Style) have commented on the 'Dirty Thirty' rumor but until now there have been no images of the product (click image for hi-res version, more images below the fold).

Images posted to denim fan site Honest Forum show a new product that features a unique wash, custom details including 1978 leg stitching, and commemorative 'Dirty Thirty' patch, that would appear to be the jeans in question. According to SassyBella the denim is to be priced at €30, mirroring the brands 30 years (and making them finally affordable for me!). No official announcement from Diesel has been made, but an email and leaked URL on Diesel.com which has been circulating online among friends of people working for Diesel details the participating stores and draws reference to the 'special' price point, indicating that the rumor will prove to be true. Other than the absurdly cheap price, the product will apparently only be available for one day only (Friday 10th October), which would make this one 'limited edition' product that will be truly collectable.

I hope that they will also be for sale on the Diesel Online store as I don't live anywhere near any of the stores in question.

If this aspect of Diesel's birthday celebrations has not yet been officially announced, the fact that Diesel are having a worldwide party has certainly not gone unnoticed as their SFW viral video has already been seen 3 million times in less than a week. Tickets to the event are still available from Diesel.

Giant Robotic Spider Roams Liverpool Streets

Probably the only time I thought I would say 'I wish I was in Liverpool rather than here in sunny Italy' is because this weekend sees what is set to be a spectacular street theatre performance that takes in the entire city. Starting with a giant 15m tall 36 tonne robotic spider that is set to come to life on Friday night, and will then roam the cities streets. There are bound to be other creature and players in the five day production if the previous show 'The Sultans Elephant' that took place two years ago in London is anything to go by. That show was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen, albeit having only been seen online I am gutted to not be able to see this one in person. Check out the video of The Sultans Elephant in this previous post, and for more info on the performance in Liverpool check out the official site, La Machine. I shall post images and video of the event next week.

Fire Trick

Nice little trick for budding young pyrotechnics out there. I have not yet tried this out myself, so if you end up in accident and emergency don't blame me!



How To Make Fire Balls - video powered by Metacafe

Found on DesignVerb

The Decapitator

When I was studying art at college my self and my fellow students were lucky enough to be given a workshop by a creative duo that called themselves AVI Billboard Interventions, that also were a new breed of culture jammers. They worked to subvert existing outdoor advertising, to create a new and often opposing message to the one of the original advert. What was new about their approach was the way that they hijacked the advert. Until then, people would use far more crude means to subvert or hijack the message, such as spraying or painting over the image. But theirs was not such an immediately obvious take over. At the time the Apple Macintosh was just starting to revolutionise the design scene, and was putting cost effective and professional typography and print technology in the hands of the masses. Their approach was to harness this new opportunity make their changes to the billboard in such a way as it would be unperceivable to the viewer. Simply by selecting the right font, and replacing a few select words of a campaign, they infected billboards like a hidden virus, and their subversive message was suddenly given the weight and credibility of a polished, glossy marketing campaign, appearing to be delivered by a major brand. A billboard ad, ironically located at the exit of a car pound for towed illegally parked cars, suddenly Volvo cars appeared to be telling people to 'Buy A Bike' rather than their latest station wagon, and the government began suddenly being honest and self critical, telling people how their policies were failing.

I was reminded of the work of AVI after seeing the work of London based culture jammer 'The Decapitator', who has started re-appropriating billboards, albeit in a far more grotesque and darker fashion. The Decapitator pastes an image over the heads of models in adverts, to make them appear as if they have somehow been decapitated. Having carefully recreated the correct looking background, the subversion is not immediately apparent, and the viewer is left believing that the company behind the advert genuinely included a decapitated model. The meaning may be less apparently socially or politically motivated (or not as the case maybe), at least it but the approach is the same. I would love to see lots more of this kind of subversive activity!

I found the images on CMMNEWS Check out The Decapitators culture jamming on his Flickr account. Here are a few examples, a mix of subverted ads and their original formats.

UPDATE: Since writting this entry I also came across the work of Saatchi & Someone a culture jammer that created some very interesting and political billboard subversions.

There is also more info on how to go about hijacking billboards in this article on Urban75

Diesel.com Hijacked!!! By Two Girls Called Heidies

So will Heidi and Heidi2 manage to succeed in their search for internet stardom? Hijacking Diesel's homepage is certainly a good start! With 6 live camera feeds, regular You Say - We Do sessions and live chat with the kidnappers of Diesel's underwear salesman this is an ambitious entertainment project!

Catch them live now! Before they get taken down, or bored of their 15 megabytes of fame.
View the on DIESEL.COM

Improve Everywhere - Flash Mobs

Over 50 warped stunts performed by Improveverywhere involving a growing community of flash mobs. A faked roof top performance by U2 is one of my favorites.

Unusual Statues

Some very strange and fun statues from around the world.
Some are very creative, especially in the way that they concider the environment into which they have been placed.



http://haha.nu/funny/strange-statues-around-the-world