Scott Schuman tries to censor the internet

In China, censorship is one of those things you just accept happens and is as natural to me as say not being able to get a cab in Shanghai on a rainy day or Ricky Martin coming out of the closet.

But when someone like Scott Schuman, street fashion photographer and creater of The Sartorialist, a person who makes an entire blog out of cataloguing OTHER people's fashion creations, throws a hissy fit over a satirical spin off of his blog it definitely rubs me the wrong way.

Schuman, angry at Eduardo Cachucho's fake Satorialist site, went as far as send him a cease and desist email, a response eerily remincent of EMI's anger over DJ Danger Mouse's Grey Album. But the thing is Schuman isn't an entrenched company stuck in the glory yesterdays of yore before technology came and ruined everything nor is he a Communist party whose power over the people hangs precariously on strongarming the media. He's the creator of a pioneering fashion blog, a fashion maverick from what we know to be the "free world."

I can understand the desire to protect intellectual property or the rights of his subjects but isn't the brillance of this day and age the fact that people can take easily mix and remix media pushing it to levels the original creator never intended or thought of? And yes, much of the time this results in a ton of terrible youtube videos ("Look at me sing Justin Brieber's One in front of my bedroom mirror!") but at other times you get absolute brillance like this or this.

Not to say Cachucho's site is brillant because it's actually kind of terrible but it's not a rip off nor does it damage the reputation of those photographed on Schuman's site or Schuman himself. Instead Cachucho clumsily manipulates Schuman's photos using Photoshop to create what would be hilariously ridiculous outfits if only they didn't look so technically sad. All these image "creations" are posted in a jumble with thoughts and commentary that are slightly above mediocre.

There were few redeeming qualities in Cachucho's fake-satorialist that would ever propel it to internet celeb-dom except for the fact it attracted the ire of the infinitely more popular Schuman. Now, thanks to this NYT article, Cachucho is getting more visitors than he ever could have on his own merits.

Here's the kicker (courtesy of the NYT):
Mr. Schuman said his site receives about 250,000 hits each day; Mr. Cachucho said his gets about 50. But Mr. Schuman said he was still bothered by the unflattering depiction of his subjects. “Now everyone feels the Internet is a free-for-all,” he said.

Yeah, Mr. Schuman. That must be terrible, free speech and all.

Early morning meetings

We had an early morning meeting today and much coffee was ordered. Coffee led to coffee stirrers which naturally led to this picture. Not such a bad way to pass a morning meeting.

Can I get a Bad? Can I get a Tastic?

Badtastic returns again in full force as the very "Official" Peaches after party. I will be manning (mangling) the ones and twos (my iTunes playlist and a mixer) at Not Me come April 23 with other like minded people who range from just barely to loads better than me. All in all it should be a fun night.

Website flatter

D**: you going to update the badtastic website?
let me know if i can help
ill stand next to you and say encouraging things
"wow adrian, you hands are so slender yet powerful as you code that html."
"you are a wonderful flash manipulater. you are truely a website god."
"you have a kind face that's full of thoughtful web based knowledge."

Adrian: okay

the price of fame

Sad but true conversation I had this weekend:

Friend: Would you ever want to be famous?
Me: Of course!
Friend: Why?
Me: I could get into ANY restaurant in the world if I were famous!

I then went onto list all the restaurants I would go to...

My Chinese New Year Holiday in Dan Yang written in the style of an EXXXTREME type reality show on Fox meets Jersey Shore

We totally ate the shit out of that home cooking yo.

Whats up thrillahz and chillaz! D-Dog here with the exclusive low down of my super off the hook Chinese New Year Holidays in Dan Yang (D Yang for short)!

This CNY, I knew I had to head to the hottest party this side of the Yangtze - the Ouyang clan annual gathering. For those of you who don't know - D Yang is a Tier 2 city north of Shanghizzle. That 2 stands for 2 hot 2 be touched! AIR FIST EXPLOSION! BOOSH! I scored myself a real good deal on train tickets and rode first class hard seater all the way. That's 30 premium kuai BIAYCHES bc D-dog likes riding in style.

I had a super slamming weekend where I creeped all over g-ma's home cooking and was knocking back that hot water like it weren't no thang. Why all the love to the hot water? Two words: 0 degree weather - no inside heating. That's right! Those D Yang Ouyangs are HARDCORE to the EXTREME! It sounds like it would be super ridiculous but once your fingers numbed over it's all gravy. And, total bonus, I got to rock my slamming winter Nike jacket indoors! 100% branded down baby!

It was totally sweet that in those three days, I got to straight chill in the same outfit. At first I was kinda bugging that I couldn't take a shower - you know, bc of the cold and all - but I kept it classy with my imported (holla out for that care package ma) Bath and Body Works body spray and French showered or as they say in France - "Francais showered."

When I wasn't all up in the homecooking I was totally killing it at the ma jong. It was my first time but I was all over those Pung and Hu's! My family peoples were all like trying to teach me the rules but, in the end, they were the one who got schooled. You know what I'm talking about playa. I scored myself 6kuai after just 3 hours of playing. Total. natural.

So how did I manage to fit all those meals and games of ma jong into just 4 days? Let's just say, I partied pretty hard but when you're in Dan Yang - that's what you gotta do.

i still have not left on a jet plane

JUST WHEN the memories from my flight over was fading, I've now been blessed with the promise of equally delightful memories of my soon-to-come trip back. My original booking had me flying out of Jacksonville today doing a quick layover in Detroit and then straight to Shanghai. Flight delays in Jacksonville made it impossible for me to catch any connecting flights to Shanghai. The next available flight that I've been put on starts tomorrow at the delightful hour of 6:30am and comes complete with 2 stopovers adding an additional 7-10 hours to the overall flight time of my original booking. A 27 hour flight for the price of an 18 hour! SCORE!

In other news, I'm currently reading NY Mag's 5 Reasons why Avatar won't make Best Picture which include things like Academy snobbiness and Oscar's innate hatred of all things sci-fi which may be true general observations on the film awards in general but, in my mind, completely misses the main reason why Avatar shouldn't - or, more aptly, doesn't deserve to win: It's basically a thinly veiled PSA on environmental conservation made from mishmash of recycled storylines. Fern Gully meets Princess Mononoke in space.

Also, (SPOILER ALERT) what was that completely inane animal uprising at the end? It was like the movie suddenly inserted scenes from the Fox show When Animals Attack...IN SPACE. The only thing that could have made that part of the ending worse if they actually voice overed the scene with the Fox announcer voice and/or created a rip in the space/time continuum to reveal this guy:

"My power blows!"

Remember him from Captain Planet? Yeah, he was the one with the worst power! Out of all the elements - Wind, Water, Fire, Earth no one wanted to be Heart. "I can make fire explode out in a vortex!" "I can call elephants and gazelles to help us!" Lame.